Walking Our Coffees on Hobuck Beach

Our campground in Neah Bay, Washington is across the point of Cape Flattery from town, down the Hobuck River by Hobuck Beach.  There is a "resort" campground nearby, but we picked a small private campground, run by a local couple who also have a cafe.  The campground has its own little trail to the beach, which we've explored each morning on our coffee walks.  The following are some photos from our various walks.

It's hard to miss the trail:

It's a short 200-yard walk to the beach, across a gravel road and through some pretty vegetated dunes --

-- to a very pretty, wide, flat beach, crescent shaped, stretching a mile or so in each direction from where we enter the beach.  Our footprints help us find where we came onto the beach, although on the first morning it was so windy that our prints were nearly obliterated when we tried to retrace our steps:

The south end of the beach boasts some tide pools tucked among quirky volcanic rocks, where various critters, including beautiful green anemones, make their home:

Huge flocks of seagulls hang out at Hobuck Beach, probably because the river brings food down, and because the beach is so flat that whatever is stranded by the tide is easy to spot.  For some reason, this cove is protected from the ubiquitous seaweed and kelp found on so many of the area beaches.

This particular area is not known for its clams, but we've found telltale airholes along the beach, and one or two beautiful clamshells:

It's getting late in the season, and, with Daylight Savings Time still prevalent, the sun actually rises after we do.  So we've had a chance to enjoy dawn on the beach each morning:

Looking north toward Cape Flattery, the clouds still had some color from the rising sun, and water stretching across the flat sands was quiet enough that we could see reflections, making David think of the Wallace Stevens poem, "A Sea Surface Full of Clouds":

We can't get too many views of blue sky, clouds, gulls and mirror-like reflections:

It seems that pristine, unbroken sand dollars are one of the elusive goals for people who collect shells.  David has never found one himself -- only broken ones.  Imagine how excited he was this morning to find FOUR complete sand dollars, in a variety of colors.  We think perhaps the flat beach makes it easy for the sand dollar creatures to find a spot to rest, and the waves are gentle enough that they do not wash the shells out to sea or break them.

It's been quite a while since we've stayed near such a beautiful beach.  It reminds us of some we've visited in New Zealand and Australia.  We'll be sad to leave Hobuck Beach when we move tomorrow.