Category: Trails

The new trail

A few months ago I posted photos of the bluff trail at Dungeness Recreation Area here under the title “There goes the neighborhood” because it was, quite literally, sliding into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It’s an ongoing challenge to keep access to the bluff trails open because the sandy cliffs are so battered by natural erosion. This is a view of the newly-revised trail at the bluff after it was recently shifted further inland. Although it looks – and is – tidy and clear, this shift required removing at least four or five feet of thick shrubbery that previously edged the trail to allow it to tiptoe back from the ever-creeping ledge. The fence you see in this view is not so far from the previous inland side of the trail.

This view shows some of the erosion that has eaten into what once was the trail.

Trail crews did a beautiful job on this and other parts of the bluff trail. I wish I could applaud and say “Your work is finished!” But I think it’s just another chapter in an ongoing saga. They’ll be back.

Autumn on the bridge

Autumn moves fast here. Many of the trees that show early fall colors have begun to lose leaves just as some of the reds and golds have begun to pop. Yesterday at Railroad Bridge Park, above, people had bouquets of huge golden and brown leaves from big leaf maples, easily a full foot across. This area has plenty of evergreens, too, so it’s never entirely bare and grey.

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There goes the neighborhood

We love to walk to and along the bluffs overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca. On clear days the view extends west to Port Angeles and beyond and north to Vancouver Island and the San Juans. Lately, though, we’ve been looking down. As in, down the bluff just past the edge of the trail.

We began looking down because we heard the rush and tumble of sand and cobble in motion and one afternoon watched a steady flow, creating an alluvial fan as it landed on the beach. It’s hard to get a good perspective looking downward but what you’re seeing is active erosion on what’s typically a fairly vertical cliff. The two grassy chunks in the middle of this flow previously lived close to the top of the bluff.

There are already spots along the bluff trail where the fencing has been moved and the trail rerouted inward as nature has eaten into the sandy cliffs. We’re guessing it may not be long before we see changes in this part of the trail. We took a ranger-led walk a year or two ago where it was estimated that the bluffs around here may recede up to 18 inches a year.