Pelicans (Road Day #2 Continued)

Monday. After the elk we did four more things. Drove on out to the highway and into Forks. Stopped at the Twilight store so S. could buy a suitable souvenir for a colleague. (The store was not mobbed, which is a change from a year ago when I went in with PH & SA.) We had in mind for Tuesday morning to make the low tide at Rialto Beach so S. could pick up small pebbles, but the weather was still good and hours of daylight left, so we ignored the tide table and went to the ocean even though we would go again tomorrow.

Not a whole lot you can do at Rialto when the tide is high except sit on a log and watch and listen. There was fog to the west, quite close in, though we were mostly in sunshine.

Rialto Beach, August 30. 2010 (Click for larger image.)

Pelicans began to appear. Pairs of pelicans. Lines and v's of pelicans. They were angling in across the jetty towards the harbor at La Push, just out of sight over the jetty rocks. We began to think we would leave as soon as there were some more pelicans. And some more after that. Pelicans and pelicans.

We drove back to the Three Rivers corner and oceanwards again, to La Push. Dinner at the restaurant on the harbor. The fog moved inshore. Pelicans were wheeling by very close to the windows. I was hopping up and down in my seat, and showing my primate roots, hooting. "Ooh ooh ooh". No good photos. I should have had the camera make a little movie through the window. We consumed our really enormous portions of Quileute-caught salmon ("Out of Neah Bay?" I asked. "No, from our ocean right here," said the waitress) and watched gulls, pelicans, a seal or two (or perhaps a sea lion, it was hard to see characteristics but it seemed very large). There was a frieze of pelican silhouettes on the breakwater on the west side of the river mouth. (More hopping up and down and appreciative hooting. Oooh ooh ooh.)

Topo from topoquest.com (Click for larger image.)

We moved on to the end of the point, where you can look along First Beach in one direction, and out to sea past James Island in the other, the two webcam views (1)(2). (There were no Twilight tourists. I'm thinking all that is ebbing. Too bad for the TwiHard tourist industry which is presently supporting the entire West End.)

Looking West from La Push, August 30, 2010. (Click for larger image, there's a pelican in it.)Pelicans in the Quileute River (Click for larger image.)Pelican in flight (Click for larger image.)

Adjourned to our motel rooms in Forks, to be positioned for an early start for the low tide (not super low, but low enough) in the morning.