Photo Essay: Scenic Beach State Park

I first stumbled upon Scenic Beach State Park in a glorious accident. I was early for an appointment to interview a well-known Northwest potter, Steve Sauer, and some of his fellow artisans at an outdoor kiln located on the Kitsap Peninsula near the little town of Seabeck. I had misjudged the distance and found that it was just 45 minutes from my home in Tacoma, not two hours away like I had estimated. Distances on the highway map of Washington State can be deceiving to a former Texan where an inch on the map can mean several hours in the car. Light traffic also allowed me to arrive extremely early, since traffic in this isolated area is few and far between.

Seabeck is just a tiny fishing village with a gift shop and general store plus cafe combination on a pier jutting over the Hood Canal and a small retreat and conference center across the street. I dawdled at the gift shop and studied every piece of their merchandise, which took all of ten minutes, the pickings were so sparse. I ate a piece of Barbie's famous locally-picked wild berry pie at Barbie's cafe, watching a pair of American Bald Eagles building a huge nest atop the remains of an outbuilding on a destroyed pier. That took a lot longer than the gift shop, and was much more interesting.

I occupied the table among the total of four or five in the cafe that others were craving, the one next to the picture window with a view of the bay and the Olympic Mountains, so I reluctantly gave it up and went to my car. Maybe the potters won't be irritated if I show up 30 minutes early, I thought. About a mile out of town, I saw a sign pointing to a turn-off to Scenic Beach State Park, and with a name like that, how could I resist taking that fork of the road?

About three miles along the road, at the end of a narrow side road through the rain forest of tall conifers, the park entrance advertised the usual array of primitive campsites and picnic tables that a lot of other small state parks in Washington contain. After getting out of my car at the end of the short park road and walking through a picnic area with about twelve picnic tables, I was suddenly awestruck by the view expanding into a world of misty fjords and mighty snow-capped mountains. I had always dreamed of going to Norway and sailing into a fjord, and here before me was my fantasy of the perfect view of a glacially-carved trench among towering walls of rock cliffs and majestic peaks. I knew I definitely wasn't in Texas, anymore, and I could scarcely believe I was in the United States.

A small sign advertised that oyster season was open for the next few days, so I expected to see people gathering the white-shelled creatures, especially since it was low tide. However, I was the only person on the beach. I didn't know to bring an oyster knife, and I wouldn't have known how to use one if I had brought it. The sign stated that each person could shuck up to ten oysters, but the shells must be left on the beach. Illustrated displays at the park's kiosk explained that free-swimming oyster buds will attach themselves to the discarded shells and use them for protection and for growth until their own shells are formed. Unlike the large oysters I had seen on Texas beaches, these were small native Hood Canal oysters prized for their sweet taste and tender texture.

The beach crunched and shifted under my feet. The gravel bed of the beach was deposited by retreating glaciers during the last ice age. The Hood Canal is a narrow, mile-wide fjord formed by glaciers carving through high mountains and plateaus on the east side of the Olympic Mountains. It's a 60 miles-long arm off of Puget Sound, itself geologically classified as a fjord. The tides can vary 15-20 feet along the Hood Canal, so the intertidal area is expansive on the park's gradually sloping shoreline. Divers love diving into this fjord, especially around several sea mounts and caves in this body of water that can reach several hundreds of feet deep. The waters are so deep that it is one of the few places where the Navy conducts deep dives of its submarines in protected waters within the continental US.

The park itself is known for its wild rhododendrons and towering conifers of its rain forest and offers one kitchen shelter with electricity plus six sheltered and 60 unsheltered picnic tables along its 1500 feet of saltwater shoreline. The park has 52 tent spaces, one dump station, two restrooms (both ADA) and four showers. Eighteen pull-through sites accommodate 60-foot camping units. Emel House, is a day-use structure for rent, a former residence, and provides a location for special events with a gazebo and country garden. The indoor capacity is 40 people with a kitchen, dining tables and chairs and meeting accessories.

Needless to say, I was a wee bit late for my appointment, but the potters were busy pulling pieces out of the huge anagama kiln that were stunning in their own right, so they didn't notice my tardiness. I found them passing still-warm vases and enormous bowls and other items out of the wood-fired kiln built into the hillside.

I found a little slice of Scandinavia that I can return to over and over again. If you are having difficulty getting away to Norway like I am, Scenic Beach State Park can offer a small substitute in a setting worth a visit while visiting the Pacific Northwest. The captions on the pictures reveal more information, but for details about the park, there is more information at http://parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=Scenic+Beach