Sunday, July 06, 2008

Turnagain Arm



There is something ominous about this place - huge soft flats, huge tide range. No wonder they post warnings about going out on the sand. The beaches are pretty minimal, at least as far as I could tell, in part because the railroad grade and the highway are built right along the edge and in part because the mud and silt are so thick, they pretty much come up to high tide. Maybe there was a beach once upon a time, but now it's buried under all that mud.

We passed along this shoreline four times, twice by car and twice by train, but never timed it right to see the tidal bore - though apparently it hasn't been the same since the bottom dropped out 44 years ago. Too bad, bores are limited to a very few places in the world where tides and topography conspire (Wikipedia).

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