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)
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!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
These rock formations are HUGE! You can get a sense of the scale by looking at the people near the base of the rocks.
We walked south on the beach to get away from the people, then shot back towards the north.
The crowds had cleared out as we were leaving the beach. I took this one from the north side of the large rock formation.
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.
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.
Within a short period, the clouds lifted or dissolved and I was able to take a few completely different photos of the same subject.
Later, the sun lit two of the large rocks and a surfer headed to the waves.
Waves were starting to form as the gull posed for me in front of the rocks.
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.
I took this panoramic photo as we were walking down the trail to the Cape Meares Lighthouse.
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.
Aided by the force of the incoming tide, I caught these waves crashing against the rocks.
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!
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
Northwest Misc. Images (coming soon)