The Strait of Juan de Fuca is huge at 96 miles long. Dungeness Spit is a sand spit jutting out approximately 5 miles from the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula into the strait. It is the longest natural sand spit in the United States and is growing in length by about 15 feet per year. The spit grows due to longshore drift, which occurs when winds blow at an angle to the coast, creating a current that carries sand along the beach.
We hiked a half mile down to the spit and then along it for a few miles. With the tide coming in we didn’t go all the way to the lighthouse at the end (about 5 miles out) because we weren’t sure we would have time to then get the 5 miles back. We’ll head all the way out there another time. A line of driftwood above the highwater mark stabilizes the spit and provides shelter for shorebirds. From above on the trail we got a good picture of the spit so you can see.
It was a very windy day when we were here and there were two kite surfers ripping across the Dungeness Bay side at incredibly fast speeds. We watched them for quite awhile. That sport looks really hard. On the way back we took the Primitive Trail back to the lot which I highly recommend because it’s more foresty feeling than the paved path.
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