Rugged Northwest Coastlines

Ruby Beach

The Pacific Northwest offers a completly “new world” for someone raised on the flat plains of Oklahoma and who has spent the last 36+ years in the Rocky Mountains! In late August and early September, Darla and I made a loop around the Olympic Peninsula region to see some new terrain. She grew up in Minnesota, so the experience was equally new to her. (Ruby Beach)

Ruby Beach

We spent a few days on Whidbey Island, in the Puget Sound area west of Seattle, then caught a ferry to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. Mount Olympus could be seen off and on along the way. Once we made it to the west coast on Highway 101, the first major beach we came to was named Ruby Beach. It was simply beautiful!

Ruby Beach

The Pacific Northwest has a reputation of being cloudy and gloomy. It wasn’t raining while we were there, but it was definitely cloudy and gloomy!

Ruby Beach

We happened to be on this leg of our trip over Labor Day Weekend. Ruby Beah was initally quite crowded, but later in the afternoon, the area cleared out considerably. While I still had to use the cloning and healing tools in Photoshop on some images, I was able to “wait out the scene” on others.

Ruby Beach

It was low tide when we were at Ruby Beach. From what I heard, that is the best time to be there. The tides are always either coming or going out. Locals alway know!

Ruby Beach

Gloomy Ruby Beach!

Several of these beaches fall inside the lime green oval shown on the map above. Ruby Beach is near the red square inside the lime green oval. The town of Kolalach Beach is so small, it doesn’t even show up on the map, but is located south of Ruby Beach.

Pacific Coastline

At low tide, Kolalach Beach was a spectacular treat for the eyes and senses! Darla and I were at this spot late in the day. There still a lot of people, but most were clustered close to the stairway access point at the edge of the small community.

Coastline Darla Jumping

These rock formations are HUGE! You can get a sense of the scale by looking at the people near the base of the rocks.

Pacific Coastline

We walked south on the beach to get away from the people, then shot back towards the north.

Pacific Coastline

The crowds had cleared out as we were leaving the beach. I took this one from the north side of the large rock formation.

Pacific Coastline

I hated to leave Kolalach Beach, but we didn’t have a hotel room booked, and it was still Labor Day weekend. The few hotels in the area all had No Vacancy signs, so we headed south. We ended up staying in the small town of Hoquaim. It had been a long day, starting the getting on the first ferry of the day from Whidbey Island.

Pacific Coastline

Quite honestly, I can’t remember the name of this beach. We left the hotel early, then headed to Gray’s Harbor to photograph a lighthouse near Westport. I spotted the rocks from the road and we walked down to the beach just as the morning fog clouds were lifting.

Pacific Coastline

Within a short period, the clouds lifted or dissolved and I was able to take a few completely different photos of the same subject.

Pacific Coastline

Later, the sun lit two of the large rocks and a surfer headed to the waves.

Pacific Coastline

Waves were starting to form as the gull posed for me in front of the rocks.

Pacific Coastline

Another outcropping of rocks was north of the previous photo, but the tide was coming in. I had fewer choices for shooting locations. The few rays of sun had also disappeared.

Pacific Coastline

I took this panoramic photo as we were walking down the trail to the Cape Meares Lighthouse.

Pacific Coastline

This is at another unknown beach. I saw a sign indicating a beach below and followed a trail to the beach. Despite the 135 steps up the hill to get back to the car, it was worth the effort.

Pacific Coastline

Aided by the force of the incoming tide, I caught these waves crashing against the rocks.

Pacific Coastline

I typically like the photos from the water level, but some of the beaches were inaccessible. Even with that said, there were plenty of public beaches along the way, and plenty of small roads we didn’t have time to follow!

Pacific Coastline

We continued south on Highway 101 to Newport, OR where we headed east towards Colorado. The beaches, lighthouses, and costal communities along the way were spectacular and very memorable.

Other Northwest Pages:

Washington & Oregon Lighthouses 

Oregon’s Covered Bridges

Northwest Misc. Images (coming soon)