My daughter agreed on a two-nighter to Cape Alava because: a. it’s beautiful, and b. the entry trail is easy. Parts of the boardwalk are looking tired and some of the old, untreated wood slats are being replaced with coated, artificial boards. This makes sense as they will last longer and ultimately be safer.
It’s nice to arrive at Cape Alava to the sealions barking on Bodelteh islands, the eagle on Eagle Rock and the mist that always seems to be swirling around. The campsites are flat, spacious and furnished with logs, driftwood and flotsam that work as seats, tables and decoration. They are also well-spaced so you never feel crowded, and (if you arrive early) there is a variety of sites to choose from. Those with the best views are further from the water source. The creek is running low but it’s still flowing, and the water is good. I still boiled it before using it.
At this stage of the year, there is a lot going on with the wildlife. Flocks of sandpipers and oystercatchers are continually flying past. Tiny chipmunks dart through the coastal logs. Sea Otters and California Sealions socialize some way off the shore. Black-tailed deer make their unobtrusive way along the sand. On Thursday, there was a bear at Sand Point and another at Cape Alava. The latter made its way up the coast to Wedding Rocks, where it headed inland. It’s good that the bears, chipmunks and crows are not looking to humans for food.
This time I saw no River Otters, Harbor Seals or Sooty Grouse. Numbers of starfish and crabs (including hermit crabs) were way down from previous years. On the other hand, the bumblebee population was booming. We saw a juvenile Salmon Shark stranded by that morning’s retreating tide. It looked like a miniature Great White Shark and is a much more solid creature than the usual sharks I see around this coast.
The stars of the show were the Garter Snakes. There was a mating bundle of them at Wedding Rocks, close to the Orca and Humpback petroglyphs. They had just shed their skins and were showing off their lovely patterns in a sunny tangle of lust.
We left a little earlier than we planned because of heavy rain on Friday but it seems to be clearing up for the weekend.
A couple of concerns:
- I have never noticed vandalism in this area before, but we met a Ranger who had to spend his day taking a grinder along the trails to get rid of graffiti. Someone had used a Sharpie to draw over one of the most prominent petroglyphs. I’m surprised that anyone who would make the effort to come to such a beautiful place would deliberately deface it.
- There’s a well-designed pump-flush toilet at the Cape Alava camp. Some people are still using the logs on the shoreline and leaving clumps of soiled toilet paper next to camp sites. I realize that the toilet has a certain smell but if you use it, the smell stays there and not where people are trying to relax. You need to bring your own paper.
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