I took a walk Monday to the Grays Harbor Public Viewpoint Tower and boat launch in my hometown of Hoquiam, Wash.
The viewing tower is only two miles from my apartment, but it's across the bridge over the Hoquiam River, on the east side of town where I rarely go. My trip on Monday was my first visit to the tower in the six years I've lived in Hoquiam. It's not that two miles is too far to walk, but there are so many beautiful views within about a mile of my place, that I didn't really feel the need to go, even though I knew about the tower and wondered what it had to offer.
Boy is there plenty on offer.
The Views
There are three main views from the viewing tower.
First, looking west over the boat launch, along the Grays Harbor bay.
At this location, the bay looks more like a river than a bay. By my estimation, we're less than a mile from the mouth of the Chehalis River, which basically just widens to become the bay. From here west the bay continues to widen, growing eventually to 12 miles across. Then, two peninsulas jut into it to create a two-mile entrance on the Pacific coast.
In the photo above, the bay looks especially like a river because of the land and trees on the left. But this land is actually a long, narrow island.
That's what the second view offers: a sense of Rennie Island as an island. Often, unless you climb one of the hills around town, you don't that sense of Rennie, but from the tower you can see both ends, and catch a glimpse of the water on the far side.
The third view, to the east, shows us how the harbor is used. By boats, of course, but not just any boats: ocean vessels.
The ship Bad Success (what a name!) was loading up at the Port of Grays Harbor terminal while I explored.
Being that close to the terminal is probably the best feature of the viewing tower.
To the right of the Bad Success, you can see a dredging platform, which was hard at work keeping the channel open for the big guys.
The Wildlife
As great as the tower is, I spent a good chunk of my time down on the shore and on the dock. I think I just prefer being closer to the water.
The dock gives you the feel of being on the water. Here's a view of the eastern end of Rennie Island.
Looking west, from the same position on the dock.
I was surprised by how much wildlife I discovered. I usually haunt out-of-the way places in Hoquiam, in hopes of running across our furry (or feathered) friends, but here, right next to the busy port terminal and a parking lot where people kept driving up, the wildlife abounded.
First, a harbor seal poked its head up.
Then a hawk drifted by.
After I left the dock and found my way down to the water by shore, a western grebe popped up.
The grebe dove away soon after that photo. At about that time I also noticed that two otters were playing next to the dock pilings. I repositioned myself, but they evaded capture.
Or so I thought, until I got home and started working up the photos. If you look very closely in the grebe photo, you can see both of them. Count the dock pilings on the right, from the foreground back. They are swimming next to 9 and 11.
You can almost make them out in a blown up crop of the grebe photo.
I thought the grebe photo would be the highlight of my trip. Until the altercation between a bald eagle and a seagull.
The two swooped around and at each other for several moments out over the water. The eagle was silent, but the seagull sure raised a ruckus.
I've seen birds of prey harried by smaller birds before, of course, but in this case the situation seemed to be reversed. It seemed like the eagle was going after the seagull.
Eventually the eagle chased the gull toward the river and out of sight.
Let's hope the seagull got away.
A Bountiful Trip
All in all it was a bountiful journey to the viewing tower. I have plenty of other photos to share, a few of more of the ship and some landscape views. I'll probably work those up and share as singles through Appics or in the Picture a Day community.
In the meantime we'll end with one more wildlife pic, of the geese over Rennie Island.
Have a great day!