Dungeness, a potpourri of photos

August-September, 2020

I’ll be hitching up and heading home tomorrow morning … leaving the Dungeness area and heading back home to do laundry, download photos, pick up my mail and pay bills, do a little yardwork, etc.

There was so much I did and saw here around Dungeness this past week. Spending time with two good friends of mine who live here was certainly high on the list. Let me share just a few more photos from the week. The photos below are from various days, various outings, things I haven’t shown you yet. They are things I enjoyed and want to remember. I hope you enjoy them too. 🙂

 

 

Above, one of several buildings in the Jamestown S’Klallam community center, just east of Sequim.

Close up photo (below). I loved the little wavelets on the left around the tail, and of course the air/moisture bubbles coming out of the whale’s breathing hole.

In 1874, under the leadership of Tribal citizen Lord James Balch, the Tribe pooled a good number of gold coins and purchased 210 acres along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This area is now called Jamestown. This provided a geographical center for group identity and independence, and was the start of the Jamestown S’Klallam community. “Our vision is to preserve and enhance the Jamestown S’Klallam Nation’s historical and cultural identity as a strong, proud and self-reliant community while protecting and sustaining our tribal sovereignty, self-governing authority, homelands and treaty rights.”

Cline Spit is in the majority of the foreground of the photo above. Dungeness Spit is spread out in the distance above, from full left to full right in the photo above, a long brown/green line. Dungeness Spit spans the entire width of the photo above. Just to the right of Cline Spit, you can see the “thumb” of Dungeness Spit.

Photo below, I turned just a bit to the left so you can see the saltwater bay that’s enclosed by Cline Spit (on the right) and by Dungeness Spit (in the distance) and by the “thumb” that’s off to the right of the photo below. I’m about to drive down onto Cline Spit.

 

People who fish in the area launch their boats here … people who kayak also launch their boats here. The bay is a “no wake” zone which means power boats cannot go fast enough to create a noticeable wake or wave, so it’s a lovely place for folks to kayak or to drop a fishing float tube boat into the water.

I took the photo below while standing on shore on Cline Spit. In the distance on the right, you can see just the start of Dungeness Spit, where it connects to land, that very thin brown line. The water in front of me is the bay … so peaceful and quiet and protected on this warm late summer day.

 

In the photo above, you might not notice it at first, since most of you will be looking at this fabulous old barn with its wall boards that may seem poorly installed at first glance. The wall boards are purposefully installed with a gap in order to let air circulate in order to keep the hay dry that’s stored inside. We don’t have that much cold or snow or rain in this area of Washington, so the folks here are more intent on keeping the space open to air circulation in order to keep moisture content low of their stored hay, rather than worrying about ingress of rain or snow.

But here’s what you may not have noticed in the photo above … though you folks are sharp-eyed!

He stood and watched me for a few moments, then simply ambled back around the barn with not a care in the world.

Tractors on the road, watch out.

Slow your “pony” down … or something like that. 🙂

Looking out over the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the ever-present, magnificent Mt. Baker.

Who doesn’t like a great old barn? Notice the entry door on the far left.

Friends of mine who live here took me on one of their favorite walks one afternoon. We hiked south, then we sat on logs on the beach and ate our lunches and visited, then we headed back north. This has now become one of MY favorite walks.

We were out for a few hours, but I didn’t take many photos. I was busy enjoying the walk, and the views, and my friends’ company. We walked past a large saltwater wetland area back along the trees (photo below). The vast expanse of flat land that we walked on was in between that wetland (in front of me) and the saltwater beach (behind me).

 

Here’s a close-up of the reddish tinged plants in the large area described above. Hmmm. What are these plants? They looked like succulents but they were growing in land that must certainly be soaked with salt water.

Further on up the trail (below) with the beach and saltwater to the right, I kept slowing down to look and enjoy. Oh it was a marvelous day.

 

And then we walked along the beach and then we walked down on the beach for a while … with Protection Island off there in the distance, just to the right … and with Mt. Baker right smack dab in the middle of the photo … and little wavelets lapping the shore from the tiniest of breezes.

I didn’t use the zoom on my camera to take the photo below. She just sat right there and let me get that close and take her photo. Maybe she knew how beautiful she is. 🙂

One more night tonight in my little trailer in the Dungeness campground, and then I head home tomorrow.