Pt. Whitehorn Marine Reserve

 Point Whitehorn Marine Reserve is fairly close to us, and we have driven past the parking area for this trail, but have never adventured down it.  When my parents were here visiting, there was one morning where Little Mr. was asleep, my mom was relaxing and my dad and I felt like going out and getting some fresh air, so we did just that!  We left Little Mr. in my mom's care and set off for our little adventure.

 The forest here is called "the messy forest" and you can easily see why.  There are a ton of nursery trees (fallen trees that have become the growing spot for baby trees), as well as fallen trees that have continued to grow even after their fate of laying horizontally on the forest floor.  See how this tree fell, and then the tree transferred its energy to one if it's limbs instead of it's very tip?  See how wide the horizontal tree is on the left and how thin it is on the right?  The bottom half of the tree kept growing, as did one of it's branches, and the rest of the horizontal tree looks dead. So interesting.  The branch became the "tree" with branches of its own.

 We came upon this little display on a mossy tree stump along the path.

 Another example of a  fallen tree that has continued to grow.  You can see that its root ball is partially torn up, but that even though part of the original tree is laying horizontally (just left of the center of this photo), part of the tree turned up towards the sky and now towers among the other trees that never fell down in the first place.

Salmon Berry

 I can't tell if this is looking up at the tree tops or looking down into the pond at the reflection of them. :)  I think it's the first.

 Slug. :)  And my dad in the background.  This path has tons of bridges to walk over, it would be a fun path to walk with kids.  No bikes or dogs are allowed though.

 Another little display.  Closer to the end of the trail there is a beautiful stump with lots of little ledges to make displays like this and each one is filled with a little surprise.  Feathers, seashells, sea glass, stones, pinecones, moss, lichens and smooth rocks make such pretty collections.

 A plaque nearby a marble bench overlooking the ocean.

 The view.

 The Queen Anne's Lace on this path is huge, we saw several plants that were at least a few of feet taller than myself!   This is one of my favorite shots from the day.

 

 Wild Roses are so pretty. 

 The stairs that lead down to the beach are decorated with abandoned fishing floats.

My dad and I scanned the beach for debris from Japan, but didn't find anything with Asian characters on it.   Japanese tsunami debris has been washing up on Washington coasts for a while now, but our area is probably one of the most protected so I am guessing we won't see much here.  Finding something like a motorcyle would be so interesting!

 This massive piece of drift wood would look great in my flowerbed. :)

 Agate, quartz and pieces of shell.

There are several huge driftwood forts on this beach!

 

 Dad checking out the shoreline.

 Tug boats waiting to work.

 Barnacles and mussels.

 Starfish

 Sea Anemone.  They are much prettier when under water!!!!  Yuck.

On the walk back.  I love this dense crop of blooms, it's so relaxing to walk through.