Hi, I'm Eric.

I’m an avid world traveler, photographer, software developer, and digital storyteller.

I help implement the Content Authenticity Initiative at Adobe.

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15
Bottle Beach State Park
15

Bottle Beach State Park

west of Aberdeen, Washington
visited 16 January 2021
Back to parks list

Bottle Beach State Park offers more than a mile of pristine shoreline on the south shore of Grays Harbor. Known mostly for birding, this park was delightfully quiet when I visited on a gray January afternoon.

The first part of the park trail takes you through a marsh and over Redman Slough on your way to the beach itself.

A flat coastal meadow of dry golden grasses and bare tangled brush stretches toward a row of dark evergreen and deciduous trees on the horizon, beneath a broad pale blue sky streaked with wispy clouds at Bottle Beach State Park near Aberdeen, Washington.
A still tidal channel winds through a coastal salt marsh under an overcast winter sky, the glassy water mirroring the pale clouds. Banks of dry golden grasses and mudflats line both sides, with dark evergreen trees along the horizon, and a thin yellow stake and a weathered post protrude from the water in the foreground.

Once past the slough, you’re on the beach. I walked most of the length of the beach and had it entirely to myself for most of an hour, except for the swarms of birds enjoying the shallow waters.

A wide, empty expanse of wet gray sand stretching along a flat shoreline at Bottle Beach State Park under an overcast winter sky, with calm water to the left and a line of evergreens and bare brush bordering the beach on the right.
Two pale pink and cream scalloped cockle shells resting side by side in wet gray sand on a beach, with a smaller shell fragment nearby and faint bird tracks pressed into the damp surface.
A large flock of shorebirds takes flight low over the rippled tidal flats of Bottle Beach State Park, with calm gray water stretching to a flat horizon under an overcast, muted blue-gray sky.
A row of tall evergreen conifers stands behind golden dune grass and brush at Bottle Beach State Park, with a hazy winter sun glowing through a pale overcast sky. In the foreground, wet reflective sand and shallow water mirror the trees and sky with rippled, braided patterns.
A broad, rippled mud flat exposed at low tide under an overcast grey sky, with scattered clumps of brown seagrass and seaweed in shallow pools, a distant weathered post on the left, and a flat shoreline stretching across the horizon.
A weathered driftwood log rests on broad, rippled wet sand exposed at low tide along a quiet gray shoreline, with a forested point of evergreen trees to the right and flat water meeting an overcast, hazy sky.
A weathered, grey driftwood log dotted with patches of pale white and cream-colored lichen or crustose growth lies on a dark, wet beach, with strands of dried golden marsh grass and smaller sticks scattered across the damp sand in the background.
A large weathered driftwood log with twisting, bleached, and gnarled roots lies on wet gray sand along a tidal beach, with dried grass and scattered debris marking the high-water line behind it.

As I was leaving, I was greeted by two birders who asked if I had seen any eagles.

I had.

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