As Blue As This

To Salt Creek with PB. It was blue out.

Salt Creek County Park, August 22, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

What we have around here are semidiurnal mixed tides, "two high and two low tides of different size every lunar day". What we had going for us at Salt Creek yesterday was the higher low tide, barely going down to three feet above mean lower low water

Tides at Crescent Bay, from NOAAfrom (Click for larger image.)

and I suspect the little island remains an island at that tide level— but we can't testify, because we were sitting at the kitchen table talking until much later than low tide, and as you know the tide does not wait for you. It was rising noticably when we got there, and kept rising. For sure the little island was an island, and a bit of sand reaching towards it went under the gentle blue waves as we stood on it.

Tongue Point, where the tidepools are, was under the waves; there were children, and sandpipers, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca was about as blue as you could wish for.

Children in the Creek (Click for larger image.)

Semi-palmated sandpipers; they were back where the creek was emerging from the marsh; the incoming salt waters had not yet reached them (Click for larger image.)

The tide pools were under water. Canada across the Strait. (Click for larger image.)

The Tide Won't Wait For You

The whole weekend leaked away; finally Sunday afternoon made it out to Salt Creek Park. The tide rising, Tongue Point under the waves, and incoming rollers washing past the little island.

Salt Creek County Park, June 17, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

No harlequin ducks, and no oystercatchers. Not even gulls. One eagle hanging around. Some people were out in the small waves where the outflowing creek was now submerged, learning to stand-up-paddle. They fell off a lot. It looked like fun.

The weather changed and changed and changed. A stiff wind was blowing from the north, so I sat on the narrow steps leading down, next to a tree functioning as a windbreak. The tidepools were submerged, so nobody came down the steps for a long time; I read my book. A Canadian couple came. "Is this Tongue Point?" they asked, pointing at the bottom of the stairs. "No, it's out there, mostly under the water," I tell them. "You have to come when the tide is low." They will check the tide table on the sign board at the top of the stairs. "I'm afraid it will be awfully early tomorrow morning, but you have to be here when it says. The tide won't wait for you."

Tide Pools Under There, The Critters Must Be Happy, June 17, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

Cnidarians

On Monday a storm system hypothetically passed by, but really we didn't get rained on much... Out we went to Tongue Point at Salt Creek, for a minus tide.

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There was a busload of 8th graders there from a school in Spokane (way East, almost to Idaho). They had all just passed their classroom marine biology identification exam, and were now supposed to find at least 110 different organisms out in the tidepools for reals... rushing around on the bottom of the sea and calling to each other and waving their identification sheets. 110 organisms, oh my. There seemed to be about 110 of the kids, too, though really not.

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We didn't get too far out near the edge, didn't really see wonders (or urchins), but one of the kids found us a big purple sea star in a crevice...

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Tubeworms (Click for larger image.)

Blood Star (Click for larger image.)

The day was full of anemones. Aggregating anemones, Anthopleura elegantissima. Giant green anemones, Anthopleura xanthogrammica. Somehow I never before understood that below the tentacle disk is a tube-shaped body, until I saw a big one kind of collapsed into a little pool. (What was I thinking? That they were flat like sand dollars?) Some anemone links (1)(2)(3)(4)(5).

Giant green anemone (Click for larger image.)

Aggregating anemone (Click for larger image.)

Aggregating anemone, covered in silt (Click for larger image.)

The kids left, we left. The critters got a rest from prying eyes, the crabs probably all happily emerged from their cracks.

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Under the Sea, Under the Sea

Saturday morning early, turned up at Salt Creek County Park for a tidepooling class out on Tongue Point with the volunteer docents of the Feiro Marine Life Center. The moon is in charge of the timetable when your activities are tidal, being late isn't much of an option. So there we were at 8AM sharp, a crowd of people bounding cautiously around on the bottom of the sea, which just at that moment happened not to have water covering it.

Jumping Ahead of the Story: There Were Urchins!! (Click for larger image.)

Look Out, Critters, Here Come the People (Click for larger image.)

Went way further out towards the far edge of Tongue Point than I usually have confidence to go—everybody was slipping and getting up, scraping themselves on barnacle-covered rocks and face-planting onto kelp beds, so I figured, why be timid; there were so many people, if I were injured they could probably get me rescued, or call for help or something.

To The Edge (Click for larger image.)

Was rewarded by pools full of purple sea urchins. Sea cucumbers. Chitons. And lots of kinds of sea stars, and fishies, and crabs. Pull up a rock and there's all kinds of clingy and swimmy and squirmy things. It turns out it's ok to turn over rocks and pick up critters, at least provided you are an instructor and put everybody back where you found them.

Tubeworms (Click for larger image.)

Painted Star (Click for larger image.)

Blood Star (Click for larger image.)

Chitons, Limpet, Barnacles (Click for larger image.)

Best to walk on the rocks when you can, instead of the kelp. Though that means you are walking on critters.

Way Too Slippery (Click for larger image.)

Rock. The bright red stuff is probably Red Encrusting Sponge (Click for larger image.)

For the people who used to watch the kelp-forest cams on OrcaLive, a whole lot of Spikey Guys, and a Waverly. I don't know how to get good pix when I'm above water and they are under it...

Urchins (Click for larger image.)

Sea urchins and Sea Cucumber (that's the orange waving thing...) (Click for larger image.)

Blurry close-up of Waverly the Sea Cucumber (Click for larger image.)

Crabs (Click for larger image.)

What it looks like when it's actually under the sea, some views from last winter:

Tongue Point, invisible, December 23, 2011 (Click for larger image.) The little island an island, December 25, 2011 (Click for larger image.)

For your soundtrack, Sylvester the Crab is singing (thank you lyricist Alan Menken):

Under the sea, under the sea
Darling it's better down where it's wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we're devoting full time to floating
Under the sea...

Elk By The Highway In The Dark

At 11 AM we were finished with our Portland doctor business, and 4.5 hours from home if we came straight up the Interstate and then back along Hood Canal. But this was desert-dweller JK's opportunity to get to the Actual Outside Ocean on this trip, and she's driving; so it's her choice. We guessed it might take 7.5 hours to get home by the longer loop if we came up 101 on the coast, and we might be doing the last 90 minutes or so in the dark. (Actually we're wrong, it's more like 9.5 hours and a LOT of dark. Sorry, JK.) We hop in the car, find the US 26 freeway exit, and head west through the Coast Range.

We reached the coast at Seaside, Oregon, and spent a half hour on Del Rey Beach, a state recreation area. It is very very very flat. Cars drive on it. The ocean does that wonderful trick of coming ashore in waves barely two inches high...

Del Rey Beach, Oregon, February 27, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

North and north and north. Up the coast, past Astoria, climb up onto the bridge over the Columbia River, north and north and north. Along the nearly endless Willapa Bay, along the Kalaloch part of the coast at dusk. We take a little trail, look out over the ocean, admit it would be too dark by the time we found our way down to the beach to find our way back.

North north north in the dark. I knew where we were, the highway familiar by this point; for JK it was just a black tunnel. Between the Hoh River and Forks, twice there were bunches of elk right next to the highway, their beige butts and dark heads readily identifiable in the headlights. Elk! Elk! We agreed this counted as a wildlife sighting, fleeting flashing in the night though it was... Then finally home.

Started slow on Tuesday, and spent time writing up notes, making phone calls to doctors, and so on. Finally it was time for fun in the rain. We went to Salt Creek County Park. The tide was cooperative.

The tidepools at Tongue Point, February 28, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

Then we went to the other side of the park and up the trail towards Striped Peak. It was just as the trail books promise, the beautiful woods, the sound of waves, the water through the trees too gray/misty to photograph. It's been right there all this time, half an hour away, and I'd never been. Yum.

Striped Peak Trail, February 29, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

Also Meant To Say

When AO and I were having our stay-local day on Sunday, we did extensive postcard shopping, then had lunch overlooking the harbor. There was a mystery military ship moored over close to the Coast Guard Station, Cape Island. The water taxi, Sealth Arrow, was flitting back and forth to it. I whipped out the iPad to look for clues on the shiptracker sites, and Cape Island didn't appear anywhere, meaning its AIS transmitter wasn't on. The next day, Peninsula Daily News explained all, with a good picture. I was going to flit down to the harbor Monday afternoon to get a photo of my own, but she had already sailed out into the ocean again.

Our stay-local stops included the postcard hunt in the native arts gallery at the Jamestown S'Klallam tribal center east of Sequim,

At Jamestown, February 19, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

and elsewhere; that lunch by the harbor; our blissed-out hours at Salt Creek County Park; a peek inside the Lower Elwha casino because she was curious about it; and Ediz Hook.

I forgot to mention in previous post that there were black oystercatchers at Salt Creek, as there often are. Yesterday Barb Blackie stopped in at the library, and last night I was thinking I should have asked her why the oystercatchers are so site-loyal to Salt Creek Park and the rocks at Tongue Point... duh... the question is the answer. Major continuous feast opportunity— world-class tidepools, for heaven's sake— why would they ever need to leave the neighborhood??

My pix of the birds did not turn out. For splendid oystercatcher visuals, try Kirsten Chursinoff's photos and fabric art. Majorly want to buy one of these. I've written to her to see if either fabric piece is still available. Have never purchased a piece of art before.

Now This Is More Like

The days are way longer, and the minus tides have shifted along the clock as well. Look out, wildlife, we have minus tides by daylight. It was dropping dropping dropping all afternoon at Salt Creek.

The tide pools at Tongue Point begin to emerge, February 19, 2012 (Click for larger image.)

There were people out everywhere, kayaking, surfing, rock hopping, heading for the tidepools even while they were still awash. Girls playing Christian rock on a little boombox and singing praise songs barefoot on the cold wet sand. People everywhere being there, actively being there.

Kayakers Passing, Canada on the Other Side (Click for larger image.)
Now. You could get out there already now, if you were young and rock-hoppy. (Click for larger image.)

We drove around to the beach access in Crescent Bay and had the exquisite pleasure of wandering out towards the little island with our feet on the emerging ground...

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... (Click for larger image.)

The tide pools and the little island under/surrounded by water, in posts from November and December. PS A. says I must tell you that the Jesus girls were writing inspirational messages in the sand, directives from Our Heavenly Father to be happy, to praise, to be in the sunshine...

Water Views

There have been visitor days with many events in them, and a shopping day (new camera), an outer coast day, lying-around-reading days, procrastination days. Time flies.

One of the Evergreen container ships crosses the bottom of the street, December 30th, 2011. (Click for larger image.)

Sunrises have been gorgeous, even with a shortage of clear-weather days.

Sunrise to the NNE, sunrise to the SSE, December 31, 2011 (Click for larger image.)

The 'fish window' ended, and the dam removal contractor is able to work in the riverbed again. Holidays and winter storms have interfered a bit, but woo hoo, dam cam entertainment once again on the agenda.

Some work between storms at the upper dam. Glines Canyon Dam Cam, December 28, 2011 (Click for larger image.)RF & I watched the action at Elwha Dam from the overlook, December 23, 2011 (Click for larger image.)

With RF & MS, ran all over the local landscape, but in their style. Tiny walks, shopping, meals in, meals out, questing for lavender salad dressing, sidetrip to the most supremely weird Roadside America location you never heard of (Troll Haven in Gardiner, overlooking Discovery Bay); twice to Salt Creek (once with RF, once the three of us), a walk in the forest at Barnes Creek, waiting for logships, and all. Oh, and a rock and roll dancing party, thankyou youtube.

Barnes Creek, trail to Marymere Falls, December 24, 2011 (Click for larger image.)

The tides are never right at this time of year. Every time I bring a visitor to Salt Creek, the tidepools are under the waves.

Tongue Point, invisible, December 23, 2011 (Click for larger image.)

...and the little island is indubitably an island, and we can't walk on the sand out to it.

Salt Creek County Park, December 25, 2011 (Click for larger image.)

It's almost all about water, innit? Except when it's about people.

RF and MS at the gates of Troll Haven, dusk, December 23, 2011