A sunny Sunday filled my thoughts with beaches and got my camera fingers twitching. After checking tide charts, I hopped in the car and headed west toward Murdock Beach, aka “fossil beach”.  It overlooks the Strait of Juan de Fuca and on a clear day you can see Vancouver Island, so off I went.  (It’s the only public beach access for 12 miles between Camp Hayden and the East Twin River.) Being located off of Highway 112, it’s a stunning drive.

Sunny it was in Sequim, sunny it was in Port Angeles, sunny it was as I approached Joyce, though the sky got grayer and grayer.  By the time I hit Murdock Beach, it was spitting the occasional rain drop.  I turned down the gravel road that leads to the beach parking lot. Gravel road might be a bit of a misnomer, for it’s only one lane and only the first half of it was gravel, the rest was mostly hard packed dirt with some gravel mixed in. Plenty of small potholes meant I drove slooooowly the half mile to the parking lot. There’s also not much room to pull off to the side so keep an eye out for possible oncoming traffic.

From the parking lot, it’s a short easy walk through the forest to the beach, maybe 150 yards. A couple of short wooden foot bridges cross over Murdock Creek.

I timed my arrival to coincide with the low tide (in fact, it was a negative tide), so there was plenty of beach to tromp around on.

It was a great time to go looking for sea shells, sea glass and fossils (more properly, fossilized concretions), round rocks that if you split them open may reveal fossils, usually of shells, seaweed and the like.  I didn’t feel right splitting rocks open, but I did spot a small pieces of sea glass, about half the size of my pinkie fingernail.

A sudden movement caught the corner of my eye, and when I turned around, a bald eagle landed on the beach.

The rain started up in earnest, so I headed back up the beach, squelching through the swath of seaweed and washed up bull kelp toward the car, and the old towel that I carry with me (which after today’s jaunt, needs a definite washing!).

Things to keep in mind:

• check the tide charts to time your arrival. Like many beaches on the Olympic Peninsula, at high tide there isn’t much of a beach.
• Parking lot has a toilet (a sani-can)
• Parking lot is small, maybe room for a dozen cars depending on how cooperatively people park, though this isn’t a heavily frequently beach
• Discover Pass is required

Links of Interest:

• PNW Beachcombing
• Fossil Hunting Murdock Beach, a video (not mine)

Location:

Off Highway 112, about 7 miles west of Joyce. Turn right at the sign. Sorry, that’s the best I can do, as Google Maps was a bit off!