View from Dungeness Spit © 2010 Bo Mackison

North of Olympic National Park and the city of Port Angeles, Washington is a National Wildlife Refuge called the Dungeness Spit. The refuge’s main attraction is a 5 1/2 mile long spit that stretches into the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Puget Sound. At high tide, portions of the spit are only 50 feet wide and are occasionally breached by the tides. The bay side of the spit is a calm harbor, and provides safety for baby seals and other sea creatures.

In the background are a few of the peaks in Olympic National Park. Some have glaciers, some mountains still have snow as it is still early in their “summer season.”

The spit is a wild place to walk, first a half mile walk through old growth forest hanging with mosses and filled with ferns, then a scramble down a cliff, and finally out on the spit for more scrambling over rocks and huge driftwood logs. What a majestic bit of wilderness!