Tapaltos Beach and Cape Beale Lighthouse

In mid April I trekked out to one of my favorite spots on the island, Tapaltos Beach. On this trip I was hiking with the Island Mountain Ramblers and we were a diverse crowd of about 10 hikers, many of whom had never visited this beach before. The weather was kind to us for the weekend but alas we were not treated to one of the epic Tapaltos sunsets of years past. That is ok, I will very likely be back on this beach again before the summers out.

On Friday night just after arriving, we spotted a good sized black bear advancing down the beach towards our camp. We had to raise alert to scare her off, as she did not appear to notice our camp!  Throughout the weekend I am sure I saw some spouts from whales off in the distance but we did not see any definitive signs of whales passing our beach. I also witnessed numerous significantly large flocks of birds travelling north at a high altitude over the beach, a good sign of spring as the south to north migratory routes open for air travel.

We hiked out to the Cape Beale lighthouse and met with friendly lighthouse keepers. The pets, who I have met on many occasions and under various lighthouse keeper’s watch, were as pleasant as always. The Cape Beale Resident dog Pepper, had just had a haircut and was looking rather dapper.

A pretty uneventful trip overall, with average weather. We spent time enjoying the beach, exploring the tidal pools, and watching for wildlife.