Ash Creek Images
Photographs of the West by Doug Gorsline
Driftwood with Salal on Willapa Bay, Long Beach Peninsula, Washington
It doesn't take a lot of imagination to picture an animal shape in this photo of a weathered remnant of a tree on the mud flats of Willipa Bay on the east side of Washington's Long Beach Peninsula. The shrubbery on the top of the log is mostly salal along with a little grass. The remaining tree limbs are about six inches in diameter and the remainder of the trunk is perhaps ten feet long. This was a very large tree.
In the title I refer to this piece as driftwood, but in reality this tree is probably located right where it fell. We saw other trees along this shore that had recently been undercut by the chop off the bay and then blown down by winter storms that were also supprted in the air by large limbs, but nothing as decayed and picturesque as this one.
This artifact of natural processes is found midway along a trail that follows the waterline between the north and south parking areas inside Leadbetter Point State Park Natural Area. Other hiking trails in this area loop through the woods or lead across the peninsula to the Pacific Ocean beaches. If you plan to hike in the woods here during the spring or summer, do bring insect repellent.
The east side of the Long Beach Peninsula offers a less crowded and hectic experience than the ocean side. Hiking this trail on a beautiful holiday weekend in 2006 we saw numerous great blue herons, a couple of eagles, but only one other hiker. We also saw deer and raccoon tracks in the sand. Willapa Bay is an important stop on the Pacific Flyway, and the northernmost nesting area of the threatened snowy plover.
