Thursday, October 14, 2010

By The Time We Got To The Ocean

On Monday we went west. AW had not been along the Lake before and it was showing off, reflections in the water and really quite big trees silhouetted in the slanty morning sunlight. We detoured up the Sol Duc to look for leaping coho salmon. Not fish number one, why am I not surprised. We asked a fellow who was also waiting for salmon if he thought the run was over. No, he said, it's only October 11 and he thought there must be more still heading upstream towards the Cascade.

It remained sunny inland. By the time we got to the ocean, overcast and slight rain. We donned our raingear, went out onto the beach. AW took a lot of pictures of the waves swashing in, she was trying to catch the moment when the leading edge of the foam makes the little pebbles jump. (All the photographs in this post are AW's.)

Rialto Beach, incoming tide, October 11, 2010 (Click for larger image.)

Ghost trees, Rialto Beach (Click for larger image.)
Looking for a place to have lunch, Rialto Beach (Click for larger image.)

After a while we went back to the car, stopped by the Quileute River overlook for a few minutes (cormorants),

Quileute River, October 11, 2010 (Click for larger image.)

then around to the south shore of the river mouth at La Push. Out on the point (where in season you can watch for migrating grey whales), pelicans. Coffee in the restaurant on the harbor. Pelicans. Lots of pelicans. Tribal fisherman in tiny boats netting king salmon; a sea lion working the same run; gulls, scoters, pelicans. The rain started and stopped and started again.

Pelicans in pouring rain at La Push harbor. (Click for larger image.)
Pelicans from the point overlooking First Beach (Click for larger image.)
First Beach. In April or May, maybe whales. Not now. (Click for larger image.)

The day ended early: we got AW back to the ferry terminal in Port Angeles in plenty of time for her return crossing.

1 comment:

AW said...

Often my best pictures seem to be on overcast days. This was a perfect one in all respects :)

~ great photos of a great time; I love the way you select and arrange your pics, then share your journeys with us. I learned so much! Thank you