Griffiths- Priday State Park and Ocean City State Park

Our last two stops on our way home from the Olympic National Park in Washington are state parks on the Pacific Ocean:  Griffiths-Priday and Ocean City.  Griffiths-Priday State Park is a day-use park with both river and ocean recreation.  The Copalis National Wildlife Refuge and Copalis Split Natural Area in the park are great spots for viewing migratory birds.  The river and ocean offer both fresh water and saltwater fishing and clamming.  We follow the river to the ocean and stroll on the sandy beach.

Along the river

To the Pacific Ocean

And sandy beaches

Since we're not fishing or clamming today and have about another 3 hours of driving ahead of us, we wander back to our car and continue to Ocean City State Park, where another walk along a creek leads us to more fabulous beaches and the associated fishing and clamming.

Path to the beach

Getting close

Viewing spot

We reach a small lagoon, with the beach on the other side, but have another 15-20 minute hike around the lagoon before reaching the sand.

Continuing around a small lagoon

Finally the beach

Fog forms over the ocean and quickly  drifts onto the beach as we stand near the water and are surrounded.

Fog rolls in

As we cross the beach back to the path, we find many crab and clam shells, signs that the birds have been eating well.

Shells on the beach

Drifting sand

We return from the beach and continue our drive home.

Return path

On the road just past the park, we pass an outdoor store of carved wooden figures.  What an odd surprise, although we do remember that this area certainly has a lot of wood and this is a great creative use of it.

Carved wood store

These are two great small parks and we're glad we stopped as we went by (eating our lunch at a picnic table in Ocean City).