Olympic Coast July 6-7

Similar to California's Lost Coast, I was delighted to find out that Olympic National Park has a wild coast of seastacks, rocky headlands, and sandy beaches that could be traversed as a 17 mile backpacking trip with appropriate permits. The full trip would require a costly shuttle, careful planning to navigate several low tide only crossings, and about half of it climbs up and down steep headlands on ropes and ladders instead of traversing all beaches. The more I looked into it the more it became obvious that a quick overnight jaunt into the northern end would allow us to sample the best part of the coast and take in the thousand offshore islands that make up the so called Giants Graveyard. I looked at the tide charts and determined the night of July 6th would work best with our schedule (a 2-5pm low tide window to enter and a <10am window to exit). Toleak Point further south sounded like the more popular camping (it was!) so I got us a backcountry camping permit for Strawberry Point, with its rock headland connected to a  forested terrace by a strip of sand between (tombolo in geomorphic terms). Further dirt suggested the northern trailhead was prone to break-ins and the headland between Third Beach and "fourth beach" was not the most pleasant travel. Diving deeper I found out about a secret unofficial trailhead that started in the forestry near Scott Creek that would cut the 9 mile round trip hike to Strawberry Point down to a comparatively chill 5.5 miles. I had high hopes for this trip but with the backcountry permits capped at 99 persons per location and being 2 days after Independence Day, I also was a little worried campsites would be competitive and the wilderness experience diminished. Happily it all worked out way better than I could have imagined, and despite being a mere 18 hour backpacking trip, ended up being an easy highlight of our road trip.

We got off the Hoh River a little before 3pm, giving us a rather tight window to pack things away, drive an hour, repack for our next trip, and start hiking to cross narrow points on the beach south of Scotts Creek within a low tide window of 2-5pm! Despite this recipe, it wasn't even our fastest or most stressful transition between activities on this road trip! That would come later on a mad dash between Crater Lake, OR and USFS office closing time in Alturas, CA.

We drove 1.5 miles down the subtle, unlabeled forestry road to where it convincingly turned into a trail. We parked in the one large pullout, surprised to not see any other cars here. We efficiently packed on the grass, being way less selective compared to our previous backpack trip. For this one we'd pack White Claws, camping chairs, and a hammock, among other luxuries (and bear canister grrr). We finally stared hiking around 4:15pm, fairly close to the 5pm end of the tidal window. I assumed the NPS' tidal cutoffs were very conservative (correct), but worried the later we arrived the more grim the remaining camp options. The forest was a quite pleasant stroll downhill, across a couple small creeks, a steep uphill climb of 200ft to gain the coastal ridge, then a root or rope clinging descent down to intersect the official trail. A thousand feet further and we exited the forest onto the beach near the mouth of Scotts Creek.

What stunning views! The thousand craggy islands of the Giants Boneyard lined the horizon offshore as we strolled southward along the beach. The NPS' "sub-4ft tide" pinch point still had heaps of clearance and was hardly noticeable at these tides. Clearly the offshore islands are also pretty effective at cutting swells to the coast, leaving a strange scenario of a very rugged looking coastline but with calm seas. As we approached Strawberry Point a pair of bald eagles rode the winds overhead. Arriving at Strawberry Point we hopped across log driftwood and trash flotsam to check out the camping spot on the point. It was a lot smaller than I expected but miraculously unoccupied. The campsite was very exposed to the stiff northwest winds but otherwise this spot was too good to pass up and we worked quickly to setup a tent to claim this treasured spot. A few other groups walked past as we pitched camp, thankfully everyone was more interested in camping at the next headland of Toleak Point. We move some logs to form an effective windbreak for our tent and set up a hammock in the perfect spot with panoramic coastal views but other than that the spot was already set up for us with a piece of a boat acting as a table, benches, a well-designed firepit, and an artistic log windbreak. Other curios adorning the campsite included a whale skull and a giant half of a buoy (that I later used as a prime windbreak shelter for my JetBoil. A pair of bald eagles nested on a tree overhead and occasionally chirped at each other. And yes a carpet of strawberry plants surrounded. As Heather mentioned the overall effect of the spot was of feeling like we were castaways on a deserted island. With camp set up, I convinced Heather to explore some of our private Strawberry headland and then stroll on down to Toleak Point, before we settled into drinks and dinner. We looked into fairly barren tidepools and checked out a sea cave tunnel, then strolled the beach towards the next point.

It was breezy but otherwise a very comfortable stroll. The clusters of trees on the offshore islands added to the allure and drama. As we neared Toleak Point we passed many, many groups camping. Their sites were nice too but man oh man we got the cream of the crop with our picture-perfect spot and solitude. 

At Toleak Point

Back at camp we set up chairs, cracked drinks, and Heather settled into the hammock as I boiled our water for dinner. As we ate, one then both of our guardian eagles perched on the offshore island chattering away. Backlit islands everywhere and low clouds near the horizon, the sunset was magical. As the sunlight abated so to did the wind. It was a place and time to savor.

I awoke close to first light and unzipped the tent to find a quite different view. It was a gray misty morning and the tide was now truly low with rocks exposed everywhere. I had never seen anything like it. Clearly this uplifted shore platform was a fresh legacy of past Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes that pushed the wave-cut surfaces up into the tidal range. Despite the nice sleeping conditions I knew Heather would be eager to check out the tidepools so I gave her a nudge then went out to explore the rocks along the south side of our headland. As I expected in short order I found way more sea life than the asymmetrically high low-tide the evening before. Crabs and snails were everywhere, sea anemones in fluorescent green and pinks, and starfish in bright oranges and purples. We easily killed an hour exploring the tidepools in a small area and looping through a sea cave tunnel.  

Reluctantly we packed up our camp and left our special spot. On the hike out we spotted several large slugs on the trail. Back at the car, we drove on to Port Angeles craving a shower, meal, and some clean clothes. 

On the way we stopped briefly at Lake Crescent to take in its remarkably blue waters. It was an interesting lake with a post-glacial landslide dam that reorganized its drainage and seems to have an active fault that may also be related. We stopped in Port Angeles, the major town on the north side of the peninsula to regroup. We went for a hot tub soak and shower at their fancy community aquatic center, found a coin laundry to refresh our clothes supplies, then had a very tasty meal at the Hook & Line Pub. We toyed with the idea of going back into the national park for the scenic drive to Hurricane Ridge but a quick Google search and webcam view told me we had seen much better already.

Resupplied, we drove on to head towards Bellingham to meet up with my friend Scott. We had a very nice experience with the Port Townsend Ferry as it took off very shortly after we happened to arrive. In Bellingham we carpooled down to Bellingham's waterfront where food trucks and breweries had a trendy setup between historic rusting tanks and a large BMX pump track. We had a nice pizza meal as at least a hundred people assembled for yoga on the lawn (a dog and/or tattoos seemingly required for entry). The weather was perfect and the vibes very chill, a stark contrast to Riverside I thought.  

After parting with Scott and Jen we drove on up the Nooksack River, finding a nice spot to camp at Douglas Fir Campground without much effort. It was another great day in the books. Strawberry Point is a place I won't soon forget.

Shag Point Dec 8

We got a very early start from the Charleston Cave Base to tackle the 8 hour drive back to Dunedin and so that we could cross through Arthur's Pass before the West Coast weather bomb exploded on us. An escorted drive through a rare large fire scar at Castle Hill was an unusual occurrence for NZ. This put us passing Shag Point in early afternoon, about an hour drive from Dunedin. Lara had never been and the tide would be the ideal low so I led a detour to break up the drive. Thankfully the place had not yet been discovered and still had the same low key sleepy seaside cottage vibe as we drove through to the grass park on the seacliffs. We had the whole rocky shore platform to ourselves other than the many seals that variably objected to our presence or slept indifferently. We continued on past them to the widest part of the shore platform, with its strange and unusual shapes and textures.

Only a 10 minute drive to the north on this coast is the Moeraki Boulders, a geological wonder and very famous tourist trap of perfectly spherical sandstone concretions to greater than a meter across that are exposed among the beach sands at low tide. Here at Shag Point is a similar geological formation, except here the concretions are much larger, more variable, and still embedded in their source rock. And very few people know they are here. These ones are in various stages of decay, appearing like eggshells of giant monsters, many with their own tide pool gardens within, intricate cracks, and bright biotic colors. It was every bit as good as I remembered and we both enjoyed wandering around examining every little intricate feature and taking many photos.

At the far end of the beach two seals climbed on top of the largest concretion (shaped like a turtle, above) to put some distance between us. After we examined this last major cluster of concretions we returned the way we came and drove on to Dunedin. Once back it was time to dry and organize gear. Dunedin was also bizarrely warm, which helped. Lara and I grabbed some takeout pizza and ate on the nice slope overlooking the lower gardens, which was a nice fitting end to a nostalgic New Zealand visit.

Seaview Beach Nov 28

Presenting at the 2024 Geoscience Society of New Zealand Annual Conference offered me a delightful opportunity to catch up with friends and colleagues in Dunedin, my other side of the world home. It was a grand nostalgia tour overall with lots of long missed faces. A quiet morning in the conference schedule aligned with a low tide, giving an opportunity for a morning hike to a very rarely visited beach with Alan, one of my former PhD advisors. This Caversham Sandstone cliff-lined beach is only possible to visit by a steep grass-covered slope accessible through the active seaside Blackhead Quarry. I managed to get in touch with the quarry manager to secure us permission and the weather held out to a merciful intermittent spitting. My hope was to visit the interesting sea cave chamber at the far side of the beach past the first headland, which I mapped and last visited...in 2010! When we showed up at the quarry office it turned out the manager was quite eager to show us a few interesting outcrops and so we actually started with a quarry tour. We checked out the exposure of the Blackhead Fault which juxtaposes the Caversham Sandstone against the thick pile of basaltic lava that is being quarried. We then drove down towards the bottom of the quarry to check out a few interesting breccia outcrops and the fantastic columnar basalt that makes up the remaining headland of Blackhead. 

After the quarry tour we parted with the manager and drove up to the edge of the quarry nearest our slope to the beach. I brought my trekking poles which came in handy for both of us to descend the steep wet grass slope. We made our way slowly, soon reaching the basalt cobble beach, atypical for Dunedin. Awkwardly we clambered over the shifting cobbles towards the far end of the beach as seagulls swirled above us. 

Occasionally we came across pieces of kelp washed up on the shore that were completely coated in gastropods jockeying for a prime eating position which made an unusual sight. We dodged the occasional wave as we made our way along. When we got to the headland that splits the beach in half I was quite disappointed to see that for even this current low tide there was no way on without swimming. The headland had a sea cave tunnel through it in the past but we found this filled up to the ceiling with large cobbles we weren't going to be moving and less sand on the beach meant that it was not feasible to round the headland (which I had also done in the past). I shrugged and apologized to Alan; I wish I got to show him the cave beyond but oh well.

For our return we decided to walk across the top of the beach cobbles instead of along the foreshore slope. This also had some animal surprises as we encountered no fewer than twenty seagull nests built directly on the cobble beach, most with one to three just born chicks or eggs with beak pecks that would likely hatch by the end of the day. It was quite surprising to see them out in the open and apparently was a predator free beach.

We went back up the slope, out the quarry and drove on to the conference in time for morning tea and the rest of the day's events. I was thrilled to get to spend the time with Alan. The day ended quite nicely with a run through Ross Creek and reservoir with Genevieve and my old officemate Tammo, and then a nice catch up with my friend Lara over dinner as we worked to plan our next week of travel. The weather forecast made a very clear case for us to head north and not south! Many thanks to all those mentioned.

Oregon Coast Sept 9

From our Foster Bar takeout we drove the long windy road out along the Rogue River to the southern Oregon coast, surprised by the sunny skies we had to assume were a rarity for the area. After a botched attempt at food truck fish & chips in Gold Beach, we regrouped at a pizza place and came up with a plan for our next several days. Driving south, we stopped at many of the pleasant roadside Oregon State park pullouts, overlooks, and trails. I stopped to fly a drone over the seastacks at Meyers Creek Beach while Heather contented herself with searching for sand dollars and other beach treasures.

Next we took a maze of trails through the coastal forest, eventually ending at a 40 foot handline rope down a muddy slope to the edge of a creek. A 100 foot stroll down the cascading creek spilled us out onto one of the most scenic beaches I have been to on the Pacific coast. Offshore a cluster of seastacks guarded this protected little beach and a spire created a gap that we had to time waves to cross through to the rest of the beach. There were a few other groups on the beach but all things considered this seemed to be a hidden gem that undoubtedly would be overrun if it was on say California's Big Sur coast. It was hard to resist panorama photos with the expansive scenery. There were also nice subtle details like cliff-hugging succulents and delicate flowers. We continued on to the north end of the beach where we spotted the "real" trail down and instead took it up to make a loop. 

After, we made a stop a short distance further to check out the overlook of the double archway that led to a cliff-walled beach (neat but terrible lighting for photos). Driving south, we found the campgrounds in and around Jedediah Smith Redwoods SP to be full. An 11 mile detour up the scenic Smith River valley brought us to Panther Flat, which I have to say is one of the very best established campsites I have stayed at so kudos to the local USFS. Reasonably priced, spread out spaces, nice river access, great trees, and hot showers to boot. Also quiet and laid back, the campground was nearly empty. We strolled down to the river and I enjoyed checking out some of the interesting ultramafic rocks. All in all a nice afternoon of playing tourist ending at a great place to spend the night.

Jalama Beach Jan 20

My dad had heard that Jalama Beach had recently been hammered by atypically large waves and had been interested in walking the beach at low tide to see what interesting rocks might have turned up. It had been well over a decade since our last visit but this remote Santa Barbara county beach was a favorite rock collecting trip for my dad and I when I was a kid. Personnel and camping plans shifted such that it ended up just being my dad and I driving up for a long day. I was a little worried we might have to contend with too much rain and large waves that would counteract the 1pm low tide. When we arrived at the beach campground we thought we might have dodged a bullet as half of the sites were mostly flooded from the night's rain. We set off south along the beach towards Point Conception only passing a couple fisherman at the start and someone walking halfway along. The sand was fairly firm and some places had extensive shore platforms exposed such that travel was overall easy. We did our best to avoid the globs of tar intermittently coating the beach and rocks. At a couple places we had to time the waves to stay dry and a couple other places we had to climb on the remnant seawalls to avoid the sea. Along the way we enjoyed the many small wonders from shells, Dr. Suessian coastal plants, rocks, and oil slicks. Initially I was worried we would not find very many interesting rocks as much of the beach was actually free from cobbles but the further we walked the more we saw. We worked our way to the very end of the beach where the cliffs finally enter the sea 4 miles from the campground and stopped for lunch. 

On the way back we looked through the piles of interesting rocks we had assembled to decide which ones were "catch and release" and which we might carry. We certainly could not carry them all but perhaps could have been more selective and carried too much (I later found out my pack weighed 80lbs)! The return hike was slow and painful under our burden but eventually we made it back a little before 5pm. Disappointingly we found out the Jalama Beach Grill closed at 4:30pm and so we headed on to Santa Barbara for food then home. We went the whole day without a drop of rain, had cool hiking weather, timed the tides just right, had the whole beach to ourselves, and found lots of interesting rocks in a nostalgic setting- it was a really nice day overall.

An agatized fossil whale vertebrae, still with identifiable shape

Abel Tasman Dec 12

After a slew of errands and catching up with friends in Richmond, Ruby Bay, and Riwaka I had a touch of time to kill before appearing at Kaiteriteri and so opted for a run along the Marahau end of the Abel Tasman Great Walk. It was a beautiful crisp day (if a little breezy) and a moderate low tide so I enjoyed the views of mud flats, golden beaches, and distinct Marlborough mountain ranges as the track traversed the coastal cliffs. I ran about 7.5 miles in 1.5 hours; I would have liked to have made it further but was short on time and frequently stopped for photos at each gap in the trees. It was a short visit but certainly better than nothing. Surprisingly there were quite a few people out for an evening walk on the track.

Paparoa Coast Dec 9 (and 6th)

The Paparoa coast between Greymouth and Charleston is one of my favorites anywhere. It is a drop-dead scenic cliff-hugging drive that rivals some of the best of California's Big Sur coast, but with some particularly interesting limestone and conglomerate coasts and much adventure to be had. It was not the plan but with my rental car troubles I ended up passing through this coast twice, once solo and once with Lara. This at least gave me an opportunity to gain a little deeper appreciation for some of the coast's hidden treasures with a couple new stops. Despite the hyper-tourist draw of Punakaiki's Pancake Rocks, I could not help but stop in on my way up the coast. One of the world's best example of stylo-bedding, the coastal erosion of the limestone does indeed look like stacked pancakes and makes for interesting rock textures. I snapped plenty of photos on my powerwalk through the paved loop.

On the way back from Charleston to collect my second rental car Lara showed off the new-to-me the sneaky fisherman's trail at a pull-out that winds its way down the Motukiekie seacliff in a series of ropes to end up at a seastacked section of coastline. We hoped to find tide pools but the sea was not quite low enough. Lara showed me the strange route that climbed up to the base of a waterfall and then we walked south along the coast to the mouth of Ten Mile Creek where I had spotted a particularly interesting double arch sea cliff, the upper arch obviously an older sea cave abandoned by coastal uplift.

I also took the opportunity to show Lara another off the beaten path place I knew about, Razorback Point, which features an scenic hallway and amphitheater of abandoned seastack and sea caves.

And last but not least, easily my contender for best short walk on the South Island, I made two visits to the Truman Track, once on my solo drive up and the second time with Lara. The sweeping sandstone alcoves and free-falling waterfall were every bit as spectacular as I remembered and as usual I could not help but get caught up in the subtle rock textures on this coast. We walked to the end of the beach and climbed up into the sea cave network that leads to a secret beach. On a whim I thought we might try to do something new and traverse the coast from the secret beach back around to the main Truman Track Beach. This short jaunt ended up being well worthwhile with excellent views south of the coast and intricate shore platforms with delicate coastal plants, erosional hollows, and detailed tafoni. At a couple places each we had to scramble, crawl on ledges, and time our traverses between waves. At one point I spotted a particularly nice sea urchin fossil in the rock. Working through the problems we soon arrived back on the main beach, my favorite coastal jaunt now even better. After this second Truman Track visit we continued on to Charleston ahead of the coming rainstorm.