Tides today
- Low 3:36 am 1.4 ft
- High 9:26 am 3.8 ft
- Low 1:39 pm 3.9 ft
- High 8:40 pm 6.4 ft
Today's range is about 5 ft.
Weather
This Afternoon: Mostly sunny. High near 70, with temperatures falling to around 67 in the afternoon. Northwest wind around 2 mph.
Tonight: Slight Chance Rain Showers then Mostly Cloudy, 56°F.
On the water
- Wave height: 1.0 ft
- Pressure: 1014 hPa (falling)
- Readings from NDBC buoy 46088, out in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca; Murdock Beach sits on the open strait west of Joyce and catches the same weather, though the beach itself is a small pocket at the foot of the bluff.
Air quality
AQI 44, Good (PM2.5).
Planning ahead
- Tomorrow (Thursday): low 4:41 am (0.9 ft), low 2:18 pm (4.7 ft)
- Friday: low 5:39 am (0.3 ft), low 3:29 pm (5.2 ft)
Tomorrow's forecast: Partly Sunny then Slight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms, high near 61°F.
Birds this week
91 species have been logged this week at the nearest eBird hotspots along this stretch of the strait; no public hotspot sits at Murdock Beach itself, so the tally reads the wider area's birdlife rather than the beach.
Recently seen: Common Nighthawk, American Crow, Red-breasted Nuthatch, American Robin, Cedar Waxwing, Dark-eyed Junco, Steller's Jay, Violet-green Swallow.
ID what you spot with Merlin (free, from the Cornell Lab). Bug and plant IDs with FriendOrFoe, coming soon.
Marine mammals
No recent marine-mammal sightings near here. Whales move through the strait, so scan the water on calm days.
Recently observed nearby
Wildlife: Purple Shore Crab (8), Pacific Banana Slug (7), Black Leather Chiton (5), Gooseneck Barnacle (5), Aggregating Anemone (5), Monterey Dorid (4), Thatched Barnacle (4), Yellow-spotted Millipede (4).
Plants and fungi: Ghost Pipe (11), Twinflower (9), salal (7), Broad-leaved Stonecrop (5), Western Bunchberry (5), western sword fern (4), common selfheal (4), trailing blackberry (4).
Logged near here in the last week, via iNaturalist.
Sun and moon
- Sunrise 5:40 am · Sunset 9:04 pm
- Golden hour from 8:17 pm
- Moon: Waxing Gibbous 🌔 (68% lit)
- Dark-sky quality: Excellent (5/5)
- Active meteor shower: Southern Delta Aquariids, Perseids
Aurora
Planetary Kp is around 3.67. Below the threshold to expect aurora here tonight. We flag it when activity climbs.
ISS passes
- Wed 9:51 PM, WNW, max 48°
- Thu 9:03 PM, WNW, max 70°
- Thu 10:40 PM, W, max 14°
Through the woods to the water
Murdock Beach is a small DNR beach on the open Strait of Juan de Fuca west of Joyce, the one public way onto the water for miles along this stretch of coast. A short, findable gravel road off State Route 112 drops to a very small trailhead lot, and from there an easy trail runs a few minutes through the forest, crossing Murdock Creek on a couple of small wooden footbridges, before the trees open straight onto the beach and the strait, the reveal that makes the walk.
The low-tide shore
Today's lowest low is around 3:36 am (1.4 ft); the lower the tide, the more of the rocky shore and its tide pools open up. Aim for a daytime low, and a minus tide if you can.
Tide times here come from the NOAA Twin Rivers station a few miles west along the same open strait, the nearest station to Murdock Beach, so the times run within minutes of the shore below the trail.
The fossil beach
Murdock is known as a fossil beach: the concretions in the bluff and among the beach cobbles hold ancient crabs, Pulalius, and agatized shells weathered out of the Pysht Formation, laid down when this coast was deep ocean floor. Many people come to hunt them, breaking open the stone nodules to find the crab inside. Collecting rules on state land can change, so check the current Washington DNR rules before you pocket anything, and leave the bluff face alone: it is crumbly, and it is what keeps feeding the beach.
Reading the beach
The beach is rocky and the shelves get slick, the tide comes back in against the bluff, and there is no high route around once the water is up, so keep an eye on the tide and give yourself time to walk back out. It is a beach to comb and clamber, not a clam flat: come for the rocks, the tide pools, and the fossils, and time a visit to a daytime low.
Getting there
Murdock Beach is the one public beach access on this stretch west of Joyce, reached by a short, findable gravel road off State Route 112 down to a very small trailhead lot. From the lot an easy trail runs a few minutes through the forest, crossing Murdock Creek on a couple of small wooden footbridges, and then the trees open straight onto the beach and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the reveal that makes the walk.
Access and fees
Murdock Beach is a Washington Department of Natural Resources recreation site, and parking at the trailhead takes a Washington Discover Pass (or a day pass); the beach and trail are otherwise free to walk. Check the current fee on the Washington DNR Discover Pass page.
Know before you go
- The trailhead lot is very small and fills fast on a summer minus-tide weekend, so come early; the gravel road in is findable but narrow, so take it slow.
- From the lot it is a short, easy walk through the woods, over Murdock Creek on small footbridges, before the forest opens onto the beach, the forest-to-ocean reveal that makes this one.
- Murdock is known as a fossil beach: the concretions in the bluff and among the beach cobbles hold ancient crabs, Pulalius, and agatized shells weathered out of the Pysht Formation. Many people come to hunt them, but collecting rules on state land can change, so check the current Washington DNR rules before you pocket anything.
- The beach is rocky and the shelves get slick, the tide comes back in against the bluff, and the bluff itself is crumbly; keep off the toe of the cliff, watch the water, and time a visit to a daytime low (check today's low on the Conditions tab).
- Parking takes a Washington Discover Pass; there is a pit toilet at the lot but no other services, so pack out what you bring, and dogs are welcome on a leash.
Plan a trip: find a place to stay nearby on Hipcamp, or get the Olympic Discovery Trail map on AllTrails+.
On the map
Murdock Beach, answered
Where is Murdock Beach?
Murdock Beach is on the Strait of Juan de Fuca west of Joyce, about forty minutes west of Port Angeles off State Route 112. It is a small Washington DNR beach reached by a short gravel road down to a very small trailhead lot, then a few minutes on foot through the forest and over Murdock Creek to the shore; searching 'Murdock Beach' in your maps app brings you to the access road.
What fossils can you find at Murdock Beach?
Murdock is known as a fossil beach. The bluff and the beach cobbles here are part of the Pysht Formation, an ancient deep-ocean seafloor turned to stone, and it holds hard round concretions with fossil crabs inside, most often Pulalius, along with agatized shells and agates. Rockhounds crack the stone nodules open to find the crab. The bluff keeps feeding new material onto the beach as it erodes, which is why the beach stays productive, and also why the crumbling bluff face is best left alone.
Can you collect fossils at Murdock Beach?
Many people do come to Murdock Beach to hunt fossils and agates, but this is Washington DNR land, and the rules for collecting rocks, minerals, and fossils on state land can change and can differ from federal beaches, so check the current Washington Department of Natural Resources rules before you take anything. Leave the bluff face itself alone, both because digging into it is unsafe and because the natural erosion is what keeps replenishing the beach; take only what has already weathered out onto the shore.
Where do you park for Murdock Beach, and do you need a Discover Pass?
Park at the small Murdock Beach trailhead lot at the end of the gravel access road off State Route 112. Parking takes a Washington Discover Pass, the pass for DNR, State Parks, and WDFW lands; there is a pit toilet at the lot but no other services. The lot is very small and fills fast on a summer minus-tide weekend, so come early, and take the narrow gravel road slowly. We don't print a pass price here since it can change; the DNR Discover Pass page has the current rate.
What are the tides at Murdock Beach today?
Today's tides at Murdock Beach: low 3:36 am (1.4 ft), high 9:26 am (3.8 ft), low 1:39 pm (3.9 ft), high 8:40 pm (6.4 ft). Today's range is about 5 ft. Tide data comes from the NOAA Twin Rivers station a few miles west, the nearest station to Murdock Beach on this same stretch of open strait, so the times run within minutes of the shore below the trail.
How long is the trail to Murdock Beach?
It is short and easy. From the trailhead lot the path runs a few minutes downhill through the forest, crossing Murdock Creek on a couple of small wooden footbridges, and then the trees open straight onto the beach and the strait, the reveal that makes the walk. It is a real forest-to-ocean trail rather than a long hike; the effort is the drive in on the gravel road and the walk back up from the beach.
Are dogs allowed at Murdock Beach?
Yes. Dogs are welcome at Murdock Beach on a leash. Bring water and pack out what your dog leaves; there are no services at the beach beyond a pit toilet at the lot. Keep an eye on the tide with a dog along, since the beach is rocky and the water comes back in against the bluff with no high route around.
How is Murdock Beach different from Salt Creek?
Different stops along the same SR 112 coast. Salt Creek, at Tongue Point, is the bigger destination, with a campground and the region's marquee tidepools in a no-take marine area where you look but take nothing. Murdock Beach, further west toward the Lyre, is the smaller, wilder one: a short forest trail to a rocky beach known for its fossil concretions, with no campground and no tidepool sanctuary. Come to Salt Creek for camping and the famous pools, to Murdock Beach for the quiet fossil shore.
Whose ancestral land is Murdock Beach?
This is the western strait country where Klallam and Makah homelands meet. Murdock Beach sits within the territory the Lower Elwha Klallam people describe as their own, some thirty-three village sites from the Hoko River in the west to Puget Sound in the east, on both shores of the strait, where they have lived since time immemorial; the Makah Nation's homeland runs west from here to Cape Flattery. Both nations steward this coast today: a few miles west, the Makah Tribe and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe together restored the Pysht River Conservation Area (elwha.org, makah.com).
What is a phenophase?
A phenophase is a stage in the seasonal life of a living thing: the week the bigleaf maples leaf out, the morning the salmon start running, the first frost on the salal. It's a way of telling time by what's happening outside rather than by the calendar. The study of it is called phenology, the science of nature's timing, of when things bloom, migrate, ripen, and rest. Phenophase brings that down to one place at a time. We read the live signals for a spot, its tides, light, birds, and blooms, and tell you what season it's truly in right now, and whether it's worth the trip.
Since time immemorial
Murdock Beach lies on the western Strait of Juan de Fuca, in the homeland of the Lower Elwha Klallam people, who describe their traditional territory as some thirty-three village sites reaching from the Hoko River in the west to Puget Sound in the east, with villages on both shores of the strait, and who have lived along these waters since time immemorial. This is also the country where Klallam and Makah lands meet: the Makah Nation's homeland runs west from here to Cape Flattery, and both nations remain active stewards of this coast today. A few miles west, the Makah Tribe and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe together restored the Pysht River Conservation Area, replanting thousands of native trees along a recovering salmon river, the kind of care both peoples continue to lead on the North Olympic Peninsula.
In their own words: Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe · Makah Tribe
Nearby places
- Crescent Beach at Salt Creek · 7 mi
- Salt Creek Recreation Area · 7 mi
- Elwha River Valley · 15 mi
- Cape Flattery & Neah Bay · 42 mi
A heads-up when it's a good day at Murdock Beach: a daytime low to open the rocky shore, calm strait water, and good light down through the trees to the water. Coming soon.