John Guilford's Hikes

Date: 2015-06-22

Location: Dungeness Spit

People: (including myself): Pam

Start:		10:30	  0
Start of spit:	10:40	  0.5
Lighthouse:	12:20	  5.1
Leave:		12:40	  5.4
End of spit:	2:20	  10
Out:		2:30	  10.5

People are only allowed on the north side of Dungeness Spit.  The south side is reserved for wildlife.  Interestingly, joggers aren't allowed up the actual spit (I don't know why).  We were lucky and happened to hit low tide for this hike.  It was still going out during the hike and that provided us with some damp, relatively firm sand to walk on.  During a higher tide, you'd have to walk higher up the beach on looser sand and rougher terrain, making travel more difficult. 

Initially you can see the bluffs to the west and the spit to the east curving out of sight.  Eventually Mt. Baker starts to appear over the spit.  About 2/3s of the way to the light house, the spit curves eastward and Mt. Baker and the light house come into view.  You still have more than a mile to go to get to the light house, however. 

We made good time on the packed sand and got to the light house in only a couple hours.  The light house keeper told us there was an Orca who had been in Dungeness Bay (south of the light house) earlier, but who moved north of the light house into the strait.  We looked for it, but never saw any sign of it.  We did see a good number of sea lions for about the first mile back from the light house.  Needless to say, there were quite a few sea birds on the water as well as on the spit. 

The day was sunny and warm.  We should have been wearing sun screen but didn't have any with us, so we got a bit toasted as we stayed out longer than we had expected to. 

First good view of Dungeness Spit.  You can just make out the light house five miles away. 

Pam on the north side of the spit with Lighthouse still more than a mile away.  The vehicle approaching is the for the Lighthouse Keepers. 

Dungeness Lighthouse. 

Interesting tree roots.  The hard part of this photo was getting the correct angle to not show the half dozen people just on the far side of the roots.