We decided to be tourists and just go do a study session on the beach where no collecting is allowed. It was a very low tide, which as this location means an extremely wide beach. Strangely, the water off shore gets very deep very quickly despite the flatness of the beach. This is the home of the world's largest octopus which are actually huge. This is also my "go to" spot to catch salmon in the fall from the beach. Huge numbers of salmon swim by within 50 feet of shore and its not uncommon to have salmon swim by about 3 feet out from the shore. I'm very surprised to see the seaweed adhering to the rock but I suspect the problem is that the native anemones which eat the seaweed are being over-harvested for export. I found a rock that really excited me the first piece of Addy quartzite I have ever seen in western Washington. Addy quartzite is from northeastern Washington and is famous for its reds and purples. Glacial periods are called stades by geologists and various stades came to this location from various directions. At times the ice here was 6000 feet thick. This beach has lots of light colored rocks, felsic rocks, which have lots of feldspar in them and these felsic rocks do not come from glaciers that came from the northeast so finding a rock that did come from the glaciers that started out in the Rocky Mountains is quite exciting to me. I also found what seems to be the base of a giant quartz crystal. On the way down to the beach we made the obligatory spring stop to look at what may be the rarest flower in the world, the yellow paintbrush. Relaxing day.
