When Alexa finally stopped reciting the same ‘ol dreary spiel about Gig Harbor being “56 degrees with intermittent clouds and showers,” the kids and I jumped at the chance to spend the last lazy days of summer break in the sun — and at the beach.
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We ventured to not just one beach — but one, two … three … fourslices of shoreline.
I’ll recap them all in upcoming columns but, in general, they were:
Tacoma DeMolay Sandspit on Fox Island
Ruston Way Waterwalk at Point Ruston (with our pal Greg Spadoni)
Owen Beach in Tacoma
Olalla Boat Launch in Kitsap County
Olalla Boat Launch
That last one? Well, it was our second time in quaint-and-country Olalla and beachcombing around its boat launch just might find itself fast-tracked into our favorites list of 2024.
Heading north from Gig Harbor on Crescent Valley Drive, (which, I’m told, turns into Crescent Valley Road SE eventually) this south Kitsap County destination is located in unincorporated Olalla – just a touch over the Pierce County line. The mostly residential community is teeming with quiet forests and patchwork farms along Colvos Passage on Puget Sound.
The Olalla Boat Launch is a public rec area through Kitsap County Parks. It’s marked with signage and is located off Crescent Valley Road after passing over a short bridge. Across the street from Olalla Bay Market, the launch is essentially a parking lot that also offers a portable toilet unit, water access and a gravely slope to launch a small boat or kayak. The waterway options include a lagoon, sometimes also referred to Olalla Bay, with varying degrees of depth, on one side of the bridge and the open water of the sweeping Colvos Passage on the other side. We watched boats slip into the water from the launch and venture out into both sides of the bridge.
No boat?
For those, like us, visiting the launch without a boat, why not try some bird watching? We saw some folks set up camping chairs right along the dirt between the water and the parking lot’s outer edge to enjoy watching their feathery friends.
Looking to swim? I heard the shallow water at the lagoon’s low tide is a warmer swimming experience as far as chilly Puget Sound saltwater swimming goes. Alternatively, if you return in few months for the popular Polar Bear Plunge cold-water swimming event that takes place every New Year’s Day.
Tides
Like most bodies of water around here, the family-friendliness of this area heavily depends on the tide. At low tide, Google Reviews say the lagoon side of the bridge is a shallow splashing wonderland, making it the perfect place to wade in with the kiddos. At medium to high tide, when we went, the water quickly became waist-deep for 8-year-old Wyatt and 10-year-old Clara – so I told them to stay mostly along the shoreline. They were fine with that because as more water creeps into the little lagoon from Colvos Passage, the colder it gets, too.
For the beachcombing crowd, pebbly pockets of land can be explored on foot around the mouth of the lagoon at low and high tide, but the availability of exposed land at various spots around the water’s edge will be significantly less, and even sporadic in certain spots, with the latter. At low tide, that experience grows exponentially as the stretch of walkable land extends to either side of the roadway bridge — and even under it! I’d advise to always watch the tide chart on your phone so you don’t get stranded on a sandy walkway that soon becomes a mini island when the waterline fills in.
Under the bridge
The area under the road bridge is a sheltered reprieve from the sun and it isn’t scary or dirty like its freeway overpass cousins. And, overall, it just looks really dang cool under there. In fact, Clara and Wyatt had the most fun at medium-tide exploring under the bridge, finding sticks on the Colvos Passage side, and climbing the big rocks on the lagoon side. We also had some pretty riveting contests of who could find the best heart-shaped rocks.
(TIP: Going under it makes for some really cool pictures)
On the bridge
At high tide, we heard there was no beach to walk on. But, if the waterline hasn’t quite reached that peak level of fullness yet, another option to get from place to place in the otherwise small waterfront is to walk back up to Crescent Valley Road and, while watching out for cars, quickly find the skinny stretch of sidewalk along the bridgedeck. From the top, there are least a couple of little foot paths leading down from the roadway, taking beachcombers over large rocks and onto to otherwise unreachable sections of the beach to explore. NOTE:I wouldn’t try the “on the bridge” exploration tactic with toddlers – but it’s a hit with bigger kids. And, on a weekday at least, there wasn’t a ton of traffic to worry about zipping past you from the little sidewalk.
Another nice buffer from the road traffic is a neat small bridge-top balcony rail extension over the lagoon that juts out over the lagoon side. We saw kids using it to fish with their dad high above the waterline. Maybe on our next adventure, the kids will actually try fishing for the first time since moving to Washington!
Tonya Strickland is a Gig Harbor mom-of-two and longtime journalist. Now in the travel and family niche, her blog, Two in Tow & On the Go, was named among the 10 Seattle-Area Instagram Accounts to Follow by ParentMap magazine. Tonya and her husband Bowen moved to Gig Harbor from California with their two kids, Clara (10) and Wyatt (8) in 2021. Find them on Facebook for all the kid-friendly places in and around town.
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When Alexa finally stopped reciting the same ‘ol dreary spiel about Gig Harbor being “56 degrees with intermittent clouds and showers,” the kids and I jumped at the chance to spend the last lazy days of summer break in the sun — and at the beach.
