Two evenings ago I went for a stroll on the prettiest and wildest of the local beaches as dusk. I was surprised to see evidence of an extreme weather event combining with sea level rise to alter the land-forms of the beach to something outside of my experience. A novel experience the victims of Sandy on the opposite coast are all too familiar with. It was dusk and too dark for good photos so I want back yesterday.
We had a nasty storm here on December 17th. Here on the island we're used to nasty storms this time of year, and this one didn't seem nastier than the ones we've seen in years past. But it did produce higher levels of water than I can recall seeing in the 20 years that I lived near this beach at Ebey's Landing as the dramatic photo shows in this LINK
It was too dark to photograph much on Wednesday.
The high winds broke up a dock somewhere.
I as obvious the landscape had changed as soon as I arrived. There was a huge mound of rocks drift logs and recently uprooted vegetation that had never been there ever before that you had to find a way to climb up and over to reach the beach. Sure there had always a tangle of drift logs to climb through (not up and over) to reach the beach but nothing even remotely resembling this intimidating tangle had ever presented a barrier so tall it completely obscured the beach beyond!
The whole length of the upper beach looked liked like it had been bulldozed into a new barrier.
This sign used to be behind the drift logs.
A trail buried by new drift logs
Ebey's Landing remains a place of great beauty.
Olympic Mountains silhouetted at dusk.