We took a drive down to Gray's Harbor County to visit with my "grandmother in law" for her birthday.  We took a jaunt down to the coast to check out the Pacific Ocean while we were there.

 

 

Heading towards the coast... the traffic to Ocean Shores seemed to be backed up, so we went to Westport instead.

Our first stop in Westport was the Old Coast Guard Stationhouse... its now a museum.  It was closed when we got there, but they had a few outside displays that were interesting.

This young gray whale, estimated to be about a year old, was found washed up on the beach quite a few years ago.
There's also the skeletons of several other marine animals, including a fossil of several vertebrae of a very large whale that isn't around anymore.

We climbed up on the seawall, and checked out the scene.  we were right across from a gaggle of seabirds that used the rocks as a perch.

The city installed a lookout tower of sorts, for better viewing opportunities.  We climbed the steps and checked it out.

For the most part, the only view that is significantly different is the one of the city.  A fishing village struggling with increasingly restrictive fishing laws

We did have a better view of the birds, also... they'd "painted" the rocks white... =]

From there, we went to the Westport Lighthouse, which is now a State Park.

The lighthouse, when it was built, sat about 200 feet back from the shore, but since then, more than 1100 feet of dunes have built up in front of it, so its almost a half mile inland, which is pretty funny.  The lighthouse tower is the tallest on the West Coast.

Out on the dunes, we had a great shot of a flight of pelicans skimming over the waves...

There weren't too many people out on the beach with us...

We didn't have a lot of time to stay, so after walking along the dunes and the beach for a bit, we headed back -- after a couple of last looks.

< Back to Currently