Dry Creek

The British call these shingle beaches. There were some good skipping stones - some the size of frisbees. And some car parts, the leftovers from the pile of junk dumped over the edge of the bluff before the dump became a landfill.

Dry Creek is a dry (most of the time, at least) gully that reaches the Strait between the mouth of the Elwha River and Ediz Hook, midway along a littoral cell of considerable notoriety. West of Dry Creek, there is over a mile of beautiful high bluffs and wild beach. East of Dry Creek, there is over a mile of riprap, protecting an old waterline that engineers cleverly and conveniently laid on the beach. Almost as clever and convenient as dumping 50,000 cubic yards of cobble on Ediz Hook every five years to keep the spit from self-destructing - all because the natural sources of gravel (from the river and the eroding bluffs) were eliminated.

This beach has been the site of a recent unfortunate accident (something one tries to avoid, but happens anyway). On the bright side, the 700' monument gives us a stunning preview of what the rest of Puget Sound may look like when sea level is two feet higher.