Washington State has a very different coast than Oregon or California. The northern section of our coastline is the Olympic National Park; good areas for tide pools and headland trails to view sea stacks along isolated beaches. The southern area is the Long Beach Peninsula; a long stretch of sandy beaches bordered by thick forests of wind battered trees on the ocean side and a quiet shoreline of Willapa Bay on the east side.

The closest ocean shoreline to Seattle is middle beach area around the working twin harbor cities of Aberdeen and Westport. This is split into two areas; South Beach around Westport and North Beach from Ocean Shores to Moclips.

Previously we visited Ocean Shores in early Feb 2013. Ocean Shores is the main hub of tourist activity which can be quite busy in the summer. It can be described as having a carnival atmosphere with the go-carts, petal boats, colorful kites but we found it very quiet and sleepy on our last visit. It has a feel of being both rundown and soon to be gentrified. You can still find old small beach cottages next to large new mega-houses on the far end of the spit. The weather in the winter can be crisp and cold but often with sunny days. We were there to see the snowy owls and we were not disappointed.

We decided we needed a getaway over the long President’s Day weekend. Pacific Beach which is about 30 miles north of Ocean Shores. We found this great cottage on VRBO and it was priced right. It was not right on the beach but about 1/2 mile away is great beach access which you can walk or drive as we did. There is also a new vacation destination town of Seabrook also right before Pacific Beach but it is pretty self contained and Pacific Beach is still a small sleepy town. The other two big items are the state park along the river mouth, a convention center and a small naval station.

More on our stay on the next post

Beach at Pacific Beach looking north to Moclips

Selfie on the beach