Pacific Beach, Joe Creek and a bird

May, 2021

I’m still just hanging around the campground and the town of Pacific Beach and the homes in the area. I love it here. Today I went for a walk along Joe Creek. Let me show you the cool stuff that I saw.

In the Google Earth image below, you’ll see the big RED dot, my campsite. And you’ll see there is a river/creek just to the south of the campground. That’s Joe Creek.

Joe Creek starts up in the hills, to the east, and then runs down through forests and fields until it winds its way just south of the town of Pacific Beach and just south of the campground, and then empties into the Pacific Ocean (on the left).

The long blue line in the image below is where I walked on the ocean beach and then up along Joe Creek … where I took photos and videos that I’ll show you below. It was fascinating to watch the ocean waves come up into/onto the creek, but then after each ocean wave went as far as it could, then to watch the saltwater be pushed back into the ocean by Joe Creek’s fresh water coming down from the hills above.

Besides the small town of Pacific Beach to the north of the campground, notice that there are a good number of homes up on a hill south of Joe Creek.

So let’s start from the beginning of my walk today, ok? The photo below was taken from that berm behind my trailer. You might be able to see Joe Creek, coming from the left and flowing out into the Pacific Ocean.

Here’s a closer photo below showing the waters of Joe Creek flowing out into the ocean.

And then I walked away from my trailer, south over the beach, and to the edge of Joe Creek.

Here (below) is where everything happens! Incoming ocean water … out flowing creek water … wind … waves … tide … and even sometimes floods coming down from upriver when the rain and wind and snow/ice melt from the Olympic Mountains and their glaciers cause Joe Creek to run full blast. But today, all was calm.

I stood right there for a long time, watching and listening, learning how all of this water did what it did … the saltwater of the ocean … and the fresh water of the creek. I thought about major huge rivers like the Columbia River, the Nile, the Amazon, and realized Joe Creek acted the same way, just on a smaller scale.

Eventually, I took a video. You’ll see waves from the ocean racing in along the far shore of Joe Creek.

Saltwater is heavier, denser, than fresh water. So further up this creek and certainly up into the Columbia River, saltwater drops down under the fresh water sometimes for miles up into major rivers in the world. That’s one reason there can be saltwater fish far up some of the larger rivers in the world. But Joe Creek isn’t huge, and isn’t very deep, so I think Joe pushes that saltwater right back out into the ocean.

I waited quite awhile before taking the video below. I waited for that “seventh” wave (the one that is larger than all the others). You’ll see the wave from the ocean flow in on top of Joe Creek and along the bank, even knocking some of the sand bank off into the water. Eventually, the energy of that ocean wave expires, and Joe pushes it right back out into the ocean. Way to go, Joe!

After that ocean wave receded, the two photos below show a bit of the creek and the remains of the old pilings that used to be there.

Ha! Do you see the faces in what were the pilings of a pier or breakwater here years ago?

The land further up the creek from this area was private, so I clambered up the bank into the campground where the big YELLOW arrow is in the Google image way above.

I turned around then, up in the campground, and took the photo below which shows Joe Creek on its way to the ocean.

Below is a photo of the campground that I took earlier today from that hill south of Joe Creek … just to show you where I am now. So after walking along Joe Creek, and climbing back up into the campground, I’m now in the campground off to the right, there’s lots of campground and lots of campers off to the right.

And then I started walking back through the campground, back to my trailer (it’s on the far left in the photo above, up where there aren’t many other campers!

I chatted with some nice camper folk.

And then I spotted this pretty bird below as it was walking along in the grass between campsites.

 

I think it’s one of the hundreds of varieties of Muscovy ducks, can any of you folks help with that?

The feathers are beautiful! And look at those huge webbed feet!

So that was my day today … Joe Creek and the ocean … and then this gorgeous bird.

One more adventure tomorrow, then I’ll head home.