Our last day on the Olympic Peninsula was originally supposed to be a trip back north to explore Ruby Beach and other beaches in that area. However, on our way down the coast on Wednesday, we realized how long that trip was. After such a busy week, we just didn’t have the energy to drive back. We decided instead to just hang out along the coast near our hotel. It turned out to be a decent and interesting day in the end.
We began the day by having breakfast at the Pacific Crest Resort in Moclips just north of where we were staying. Pacific Crest is a well known, long standing resort on the coast. The view of the ocean from the dining room is spectacular There were just a few people in the restaurant, but we enjoyed our meal. This was definitely an example of the traditional aspect of coastal vacations.
Nearby is the more contemporary resort community of Seabrook. This community began in 2004. I remember reading about it, and we even made a trip over and saw some of the beginning construction back then. Today Seabrook is a thriving resort community. It seems designed to emulate a New England community, particularly the architecture. There are a variety of homes, some huge ones with four or five bedrooms, others are just one bedrooms, and condos are currently being constructed. There are a number of restaurants in the community as well as a market and some other shops. We had our pizza here Thursday night.
What was interesting to note was who was coming here. Seabrook was very busy on a Thursday night, and it was mostly younger people. There were a number of families there with kids. There were also quite a few young couples and groups of young millennials. What was missing were people our age. There were a few, but not that many.
Perhaps it was because Seabrook is an expensive area. To rent a small one bedroom home for a vacation will run you at least $300 a night. If you want to buy a home here, you’ll need to have at least $600K just for a starter. The area seems to be thriving so it makes me think the young techies with good salaries from Seattle are finding Seabrook a great place for a vacation. What was nice for us was that we were staying in a reasonably priced hotel in Pacific Beach which is just a mile north so we could enjoy the restaurants and shops of Seabrook without the sticker shock of staying there.
Of course part of the draw of Seabrook is the beach. The town is up on a cliff so to get to the beach requires one to go down some stairs. I counted 91 steps to get down to the beach. The beach itself is very wide and has a lot of hard sand. It is a great place for kids to play in the sand making sand castles. The waves seemed pretty gentle on this day. The beach was also a great place for walking or jogging as it went for some distance.
Besides walking around Seabrook, we also drove down to Copalis Beach. We planned to visit the state park there and check it out, but that didn’t go well. Griffiths-Priday State Park is easy enough to find, but other than the main parking area, the rest was a mystery. The park was on the right side of a dead end road. We thought we could walk down the road to the beach. Not so. At the end of the road was Connor Creek which we could not cross. We could see a bridge over the creek to the left, but that was not in the state park. The park itself had no map posted and no sign indicating how to get to the beach. It was frustrating.
We did wander through dunes to the bridge and cross over it to the beach. This was another wide beach and didn’t have much to distinguish it from other beaches in the area. It was interesting to see some surf fishing going on. That’s not too common.
Searching for a town center, we ended up further south in the town of Ocean City. Here we ended up driving out onto the beach at the Ocean City State Park. I hadn’t intended to do that, but we did. Driving on the beach seems strange to me. It’s illegal in Oregon where I grew up so it seems inappropriate to do it. This beach was much like the one in Copalis Beach.
Neither of these towns had much of a city center. These aren’t places to wander around cute shops. Mostly visitors will find just the practical gas and grocery type businesses.
Driving between Copalis Beach and Ocean City we noticed a lot of RV resorts which seemed to be fairly busy for October. Many of them seemed more than half full. I guess RV owners aren’t too concerned about the weather.
Going back north we spotted a sign indicating beach access a few miles before getting to Seabrook. We drove in and again ended up on the beach. This is not an official park that I could tell. However, it had some interesting cliffs along the beach which made it a bit more interesting to be at than the two state parks farther south.
In the evening I finally walked out to the beach near our hotel in Pacific Beach. It also has a state park which was pretty full of RVs. I think I figured out why, and I will get to that in a minute. While intermittent rain had been predicted for the day, it never came, and by evening there were just some clouds on the western horizon. It was a perfect night for sunset pictures.
I set out a half hour before sunset and was enjoying the color in the sky. The clouds were creating some beautiful orange colors and unique shapes. The waves were leaving a light sheen of water which was reflecting the colorful sky. Joe Creek was also reflecting the sky on its wide path across the beach. I was enjoying the photographic moment.
I did notice that there seemed to be a lot of people on the beach. There were more people than I would have expected to come out just for a nice sunset. I was also noticing some piles of sand here and there. My thought was that some kid must have been having fun digging. However, as I walked toward the crowded beach, I finally realized what was going on. People were out digging for clams, and there were a lot of people. I could see people all the way down the beach, farther than I could see details. They had either a clamming gun (a round tube they would punch into the sand) or a clam shovel and were working hard to find those clams.
As a photographer I found this a great and unexpected opportunity. There was still quite a bit of color in the sky so getting the clam diggers in the picture as a silhouette against the sky was great. I kept shooting pictures trying to get the perfect picture that would show clearly the clam digging going on. The sea gulls were also quite active around the clam diggers so I got a few shots of them as well. It was fun. After the light faded, many of the clammers brought out headlamps to see as they kept working. That created a different scene.
I talked to one guy and asked him some questions about clam digging. I don’t eat clams so I never had any interest in digging them. He explained what they were looking for and about the season for clam digging this year in Washington. It’s only allowed at certain times during the year, and this night was one of the times. I think it was the clam digging that brought a lot of those RVers to the area. That would be a great way to come and take advantage of the season if you are a clam fan.
After an adventurous evening and a good night’s sleep, we finally drove home. I had wanted to continue around on Highway 101 back to the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry. However, due to personnel issues, there was uncertainty about the number of ferry sailings. We decided to play it safe and drive to Olympia and up I-5. This was not the most scenic route, but seemed the safest under the circumstances.
I really enjoyed our trip to the Olympic Peninsula. We saw a number of places in my home state that I had not seen before. I also became aware of other places that I have yet to see. My mind is already looking for opportunities to return and see some of the locations we were unable to visit on this trip. It’s always great when a trip leads to more possibilities. One of the joys of travel.