Olympic: Cape Flattery

When we were planning the Olympic portion of our trip Mom kept saying she wanted to go out the “pointy thing” and kept pointing to this place WAY out on the end of the state. Looked like it was a million miles from anything.  Dad and I kept telling her it was too far and we weren’t going.

Then we met someone on the top of Dege Peak in Mt. Rainier and he was saying how spectacular Cape Flattery was.  The Makah tribe had built a nice trail and you could walk out to the overlook and see all kinds of stuff.  Ok, I guess we’d have to go!

We decided to go later in the day because it seems like it’s foggy in the mornings and the late evenings and we wanted the best chance for it to be clear on the point. 

Low tide this morning was at about 9 so we decided to walk out to the check out the tide pools on Tongue Point before heading out to the Cape. 

The tide pools here weren’t as interesting as the ones on Rialto Beach, there was more seaweed and mussels, but we did see purple sea urchins and a HUGE orange orchre starfish! It was a nice walk, although rocky and slippery!  There were a number of “thunder" hole” places where the waves crashed into holes in the rocks and I got a little to close to one and got my shoes and pants wet with a rogue wave!

We got back around 11 and started getting ready to head to out to the Cape. I think it was about 1 when we left. 

It took 2 hours to drive out there.  The road was windy and slow! But there were some great views of the Straight of Juan de Fuca!

Cape Flattery itself is not part of Olympic National Park, it’s on land owned by the Makah Nation and they have built and maintained a trailhead and trail.  To get to the trail you have to go though the small town of Neah Bay – also part of the Makah Nation.  The Makah do charge visitors $10 a carload to come in – your permit is good for the rest of the calendar year from when you bought it though.  The money from these permits goes back into the community, and from driving through I can say that this town is in dire need of some money.  Poverty runs high on the Makah Nation.  :-(

The walk out to the Cape was nice!  It was .75 miles out, most on boardwalks, with several overlook points.  Dad hauled his spotting scope out there and we stood at the last overlook for a long time seeing what we could see. 

When we got back to the car is was dinner time!  We’d brought a picnic, but I think Mom was hoping to find something.  I would have liked to find something in Neah bay, support the economy of the struggling Makah, without whom our walk would not have been possible! But, unfortunately, despite their trail building skills the Makah didn’t offer and good places to eat!

We ended up eating our picnic at a picnic table on a hill overlooking the Strait.  In one of Mom’s books she’d read about the Running Fish, we thought it was in Callum, and we were hoping to see it.  When we parked at the picnic table I looked up and there it was!

After dinner we we were getting back in the car when Mom and Dad spotted what they thought was a Golden Eagle.  We watched it in the bincocluars and Dad got out the spotting scope.  It flew away so we got in the car and were about to drive off when it (or another one) came back!  Back out of the car, pull the scope back out.  This time they got a better look, didn’t look like a Golden.  Hmmm….  Better get out the bird book.  They stood there and debated which of 2 hawks it could be.  The thrill of seeing a relatively rare bird had worn off for me and I was in the car reading.  I glance up from my book and see a Bald Eagle fly by.  That’s when they realized that it was a juvenile Bald Eagle.  Not that exciting.  Finally, everything was packed into the car and off we went back to the campground.

Olympic: Cape Flattery