StphnMartin, ScubaJess and I went for some diving/camping at Salt Creek last weekend. Emerald Sea dive club was also there so we got to meet and chat with a bunch of those guys. They were super nice, they even gave us one of their campsites. JMartel and his wife joined us for a dive there Sunday too.
If you haven't been to or heard of Salt Creek, it is on a beautiful part of the Straight of Juan de Fuca, near Port Angeles. The beach has a small rocky bluff with some nice cuts, and a spire off shore. The site experiences a lot of surge and waves, and entry can be difficult. However once you're in, if you are a type of person who can stand a little surge, it's a truly magical place when the conditions are good.
Saturday, the conditions were great -- great viz, sun shine above, and not too much surge!
It was so beautiful out there! I did a 100 minute dive followed by a 120 minute dive.Sunday, the conditions were rougher, viz went down, surge went up. We only did one dive about 90 min.
There are three distinct zones to the site
1) surge zone -- this area is filled with boa kelp, surfgrass, green anemones, perch, barnacles, muscles, pink corral, and if you're lucky ROCK GREENLINGS. I wasn't so lucky (never have been!) but somebody from ESDC was lucky to see a Rocky! The surge zone is beautiful but can be quite a ride.
2) kelp zone -- a thick kelpy area, with 3-8 foot deep surge trenches underneath where you can find all sorts of cool critters. Baby orange peel nudibranch is one example. There are also lots of green, purple, red urchins. In some areas the urchins have mowed the kelp, but overall the kelp is very thick and healthy
3) open zone -- out past the kelp, there's a flatter area with some small rock shelves, boulders and cuts. Giant fish-eating anemones are the main attraction here, but you'll also see urchin, rockfish, greenling, mosshead warbonnets, longfin sculpin, glassy plume hydroids (Plumularia setacea, one of my faves), seastars, etc,
There were also beautiful jellies floating thru the area -- tons of cross jellies, but also an egg yolk jelly and a red eye medusa (!)
Here were some of my snaps:
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