Two paths lead from the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge parking lot, high on a bluff, to the five-mile long spit where a lighthouse beckons. It is a working lighthouse, and a great beach hike. We took the primitive path through the woods which is rainforest in nature.
It isn't an exaggeration to say the woods are being eaten up by rot, mosses and fungi of one sort or another.
And, we see beauty in the process.
The forest is heavy, dark with sunlight streaking through in places. You feel like you are alone in the bower of bushes and trees brushing and closing in all sides.
Then, from an overlook, you get a magnified view of the lighthouse at the end of the spit with a day full of sun, blue water and sky.
Down onto the beach, there isn't much to see but driftwood for miles. Huge tree roots and smooth washed branches, along with a few gulls and the never-ending tidal laps.
Like kids, we played while enjoying our luck to be outside walking a sand spit rather than sitting in front of a television or worrying about the bad news it injects into your life daily.
Many of the trees have roots and we pondered where did they come from? Is this yellow cedar?
Jim drew a heart in the sand...
"It's been a long time since I did something like that," he said.
Our goal was this upright piece of driftwood. Who would take the time to stand up a tall heavy dead tree like that, we asked ourselves?
The upright drift wood, didn't drift here. The tree was still attached to the ground like the surrounding stumps, a sentinel of what the area may have looked like with a forest closer to the water at one time in the distant past.
A popular pastime for some people is to stack stones into cairns, or build shelters from the driftwood.
I climbed up the grassy embankment and the lighthouse is still just a small bubble on the horizon.
And a look back from whence we came, the tall bluff. We walked about a mile on the beach.
Then returned to civilization for lunch at the golf course in beautiful Dungeness, figuring since there is a dungeness festival coming up we could find some good crab. I had the lightest, tastiest crab cakes at Stymies, but their chowder left a lot to be desired. It is always an adventure. From there to the Organic Farm Store for produce and home to read and relax.
Check out this sunset. It was predicted to rain, but didn't.
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