Picnic Point Park

Directions

From highway 99, you will want to look for a tiny road called Shelby road. There is no stop light for this road. 148th St SW is south of Shelby on 99, and 525th is north of Shelby. Once on Shelby continue straight and Shelby will become Picnic Point Road. A little further down the road there is a sign for a road to the park on the right side. Take this road, it is the continuation of Picnic Point Road. Next a Y the appear, take the left, and the park will soon be in sight.

Description

Once you arrive at the site you will need to take the bridge walkway over the train tracks to the beach. Putting your gear on first or having a little cart makes this easier, as there is some uphill walking and distance to cover.

At this site there is a sandy bottom with fields of eel grass. Near the shore, the bottom consists of a gravel bottom with medium sized rocks scattered around randomly. Sole can be found at this site hiding in the sand with only their eyes sticking out of the sand. Hermit crabs also scramble along bottom at this location.

Dungeness crab, red rock crab, and kelp crab can all be found at this site. The dungeness and red rock can be found in the eel grass or in the sandy areas. The kelp crab, however, are usually only found hiding in the eel grass.

The water is shallow at this location. Even swimming a long way out, it is difficult to get deeper than 40 feet deep. There also can be moderate current at this location. Boats are not usually a big hazard at this location, but the shallowness of the water and the possibility of small boats in the area make this a possible hazard.

References

Fischnaller, Stephen. "Northwest Shore Dives: Third Edition". Picnic Point County Park. Bio-Marine Images: Olympia, 2000. 182-185.