Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge

Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge

Following our hike at Obstruction Point we headed to Dungeness Spit. I thought that since Natasha had seen the spit from the road to Hurricane Ridge, where it appears as a wispy piece of land extending into the Straights of Juan de Fuca, it would be fun to see it from ground level.


Since it was a beautiful day, a weekend and July the spit was busy but the further out the 5 mile spit you hike, the fewer people.

The spit has a beautiful beach on the west side and a wildlife refuge on the east side where it wraps around a small bay. In the middle, an abundance of driftwood to build day houses, climb on, seek refuse from the wind or just sit and relax.

Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge is located along the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula in Clallam County, Washington. President Woodrow Wilson established the Refuge on January 20, 1915 by Executive Order as a refuge, preserve, and breeding ground for native birds. Eelgrass beds and tide flats teem with migrating shorebirds in spring and fall; flocks of waterfowl find food and rest in these protected waters during the winter; eel grass beds also provide a nursery for young salmon and steelhead. The Refuge currently consists of 636 acres, including a sand spit, second-class tidelands and bay, and a small forested upland area. Dungeness NWR boasts one of the world's longest natural sand spits, which softens the rough sea waves to form a quiet bay and harbor, gravel beaches, and tide flats. Dungeness Spit is one of only a few such geological formations in the world which was formed during the Vashon Glacial era ten to twenty thousand years ago. more . . .