Washington's Pacific Coast

For the last two and one-half weeks we explored the coastline of Olympic National Park.  Tide pools  at low tide were decorated with orange and purple sea stars plus anemones, mussels, oysters, and many other creatures.  The huge haystack rocks were home to colonies of many alcids and other sea birds, the rocks below were rising 100 feet above the water.  The beaches were strewn with huge tree trunks as pictured below which was 33 feet across.

Some of the wonderful creatures we observed were gray whales, sea otters, harbor seals, river otters and porpoises.  We spent hours scoping the ocean waves for birds and were rewarded with record numbers of Pacific & Red-throated loons, Common Murres, Rhinoceros Auklets, Sooty, Buller's & Pink-footed Shearwaters, Heermann's Gulls, South Polar Skua and numbers of shorebirds.

In between coastal areas we visited the Hoh Rain Forest with beautiful moss covered trees and observed our 52nd bear for the trip and saw the Roosevelt Elk (a herd of 16 cows and calves).

We are now at Copalis Beach for the next few days, ready to explore the endless beach that is crowded with shorebirds and gulls and not too many people.  Our best to everyone. Ty & Ida