Pillar Point County Park
IBA (Important Birding Area)
Directions: From Port Angeles, follow US 101 west for 5.4 miles turning right onto State Route 112. Continue for 31.5 miles and turn right entering Pillar Point County Park in 0.2 mile.
Ownership: Clallam County Parks
Trail Distance: None, beach access
Difficulty: easy beach walking in low tides.
Fees/Permits: none
Notes: Kid-friendly, Dogs permitted on leash, restrooms
Named for a prominent 700-foot high pillar shaped sea stack just to the north, Pillar Point is popular with anglers and for launching boats. The park is small, but owing to its location where the Pysht River drains into the Strait of Juan de Fuca—and nearby tidal flats, the park offers exceptional birdwatching. If you have a boat or kayak you can paddle to nearby DNR beaches and tidal flats. Otherwise you can observe birds from the park’s small beach.
Pillar Point County Park | photo ScenicWAWatch for black-bellied plovers, dunlins, sanderlings, phalaropes, black oystercatchers, and whimbrels. In the bays near the park, look for black, surf, and white-winged scoters, common, red-throated and Pacific loons, and red-necked and horned grebes. Marbled murrelets are common in the bays near the park. Look too for black swifts and bald eagles. This area also is a good spot for viewing migrating turkey vultures in the fall.
