In preparation for a big trip across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Race Rocks, I drove out to the Olympic Peninsula the day before to scout launching locations. I checked out Ediz Hook, Freshwater Bay, and Angeles Point, ultimately settling on Angeles Point as a reasonable compromise between swell exposure and paddling distance.
Once my investigation was done, I took some time to explore the stretch of coast between Freshwater Bay and Crescent Bay along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Route map. Rob Casey, in his excellent guidebook, recommends this stretch as one of the prettiest along the entire Strait of Juan de Fuca.
This was my first time really exploring the strait. On previous visits to the Olympic Peninsula, I had driven past without stopping on my way to more remote destinations in Olympic National Park. I had written off the strait as hopelessly overrun by private property and the logging industry, but my dismissal was premature. As I now discovered, the strip between the highway and the coast is full of unexpected delights.
The wind was blowing quite powerfully all morning, and the currents in the strait were running strong. Rather than face such difficult conditions on the water, I spent the morning exploring on land.
Ediz Hook, inside beach. Ediz Hook is the smaller sibling of nearby Dungeness Spit. Unlike Dungessness Spit, however, Ediz Hook has not been left in its natural state. It is home to a coast guard station, paper mill, boat launch, and other “amenities” of civilization.
Angeles Point beach. In a fifteen-knot wind, the Strait of Juan de Fuca was a mess of whitecaps.
Parking lot at Angeles Point. The Olympic Mountains are a beautiful backdrop for kayaking.
Elwha River Road bridge. Clallam County installed this magnificent footbridge beneath the road bridge to enable hikers to complete the Olympic Discovery Trail without risking themselves in traffic.
Camp Hayden 16-inch gun battery casemate. Camp Hayden was built during WWII to replace the obsolete Endicott Period forts.
Late in the afternoon, the wind dropped to a more manageable ten knots, and the currents slowed. I launched from Freshwater Bay and paddled along the shore to Crescent Bay.
Even with slower winds and currents, the westbound leg was a bit of a slog. Because of the Strait of Juan de Fuca’s channeling effects, even relatively modest wind and waves create steep, bumpy conditions. I was tossing around too much to explore any of the sea caves or arches along this stretch of coast. I’ll have to come back when it’s calmer.
Rock gardening at Freshwater Bay. Freshwater Bay is one of the most sheltered launch points along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Observatory Point, Freshwater Bay. Beyond this rock, the paddler is fully exposed to wind, waves, and swell in the strait.
Paddling past cliffs between Freshwater and Crescent Bay. There are a few pocket beaches along this stretch, but mostly the shoreline is cliffs.
Choppy conditions at Tongue Point, Crescent Bay. This is a popular area for surfers.
At Crescent Bay, I turned around and ran back east ahead of a following sea. Wind, swell, and current were all pushing me, sometimes uncomfortably so. The key was to remain outside the kelp line, where I had enough sea room to ride the waves in a favorable direction without getting surfed into the cliffs. The three-and-a-half-mile ride (5.5 km) back to Freshwater Bay took less than forty-five minutes.
—Alex Sidles