Moody light for a walk by the marsh at Dungeness Recreation Area.
Sunset
Tag: Dungeness Recreation Area
Gravity takes over
Part of this tree was still standing when you last saw it last week. A big branch from it that had fallen across the adjacent trail was removed on Friday but the reduced tree remained standing.
It was a different picture on Saturday morning. The remaining branches that made up the bulk of the tree splayed outward and fell in several directions, above.
This is the base of the tree. The golden colored wood is so rotted it has the weight and consistency of balsa wood and fluttered away on the breeze when we rubbed it.
And you may have noticed: there don’t appear to be any roots attached.
I’m very sorry to see this tree gone. At the same time it’s a blessing no one was injured as it went down.
That old tree…saying good bye
I was close enough yesterday that I heard a “crunch.” When I investigated I discovered that one of my favorite trees at the Dungeness Recreation Area had suffered a devastating failure.
Fully half the tree collapsed. No great wind did it. When I looked through the shrubbery that surrounded it I saw massive rot around its base. Time had taken a toll.
This is one of our native willows — there are three types around here. They are relatively short-lived. Two types, the Pacific or red willow and the Sitka, live in moist soils as this one does. The Scouler or fire willow is a third that is common and also given to wet sites.
The recreation area staff expects to start clearing these branches away today. I hope the remaining upright portions of the tree can remain…if it’s safe. I’m glad no one was nearby when this occurred.
This is one of my favorite trees. I have featured it before. This link will take you to a series that featured it in several seasons. And here it was last January during a snowstorm with a link to other shots.
Keep out
A sign of the times: the public is no longer welcome at the Dungeness Recreation Area.
I can understand that camping has been discontinued. But so has walking. Beyond the gate and this sign is another that reads “Do Not Enter.” And just in case it wasn’t clear, yellow caution tape has also recently been strung across the signs and bollards.
No contest
There are so many things one can do in a time of self quarantine. Cancellations have cracked open freshly minted hours of free time. Yesterday’s competing tasks: tidy up my office or take a walk.
Gone
We’ve lost the second and last pullout area at the Dungeness Recreation Area, a pull through parking area where people could overlook the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I last showed this here, when a portion of its fence took flight over open air.
Vancouver Island, British Columbia is off in the distance. In the closer foreground is where visitors could drive up and park. A path and fence was just beyond the parking places. Mother Nature is taking that back.
Another midair fence
There have been two pullouts at the Dungeness Recreation Area where vehicles can either pull through or park with a view out onto the Strait of Juan de Fuca and, to the north, Vancouver Island, B.C. and Washington’s San Juan Islands. Chunk by chunk these pullouts have eroded as wind and weather have taken their toll on the compacted sandy soil. For the moment this is the only remaining area where people and vehicles can move close to the view.
Three parking spaces are now out of service. I expect that soon, like the other former pullout area, this area will be barricaded by a fence.
When we moved to Sequim ten years ago we walked a path along this edge of the bluffs from the public campground at the north along nearly the full frontage of the park’s western boundary on the bluff. The views were wonderful. The left-hand fence, above, was one of the earliest barriers across the trail as the bluff began to slip. Parts of the path are now entirely gone. Some areas of the trail next to the campgrounds still come close to water views but the waterfront overlook trail is now long gone.