Guided Rockhounding Tour: The Three Graces

If you've ever gone beachcombing and come home empty-handed, you're just not looking in the right place. I know all the tricks.

Join me on a guided rock hounding and sea glassing tour of The Three Graces near Garibaldi, Oregon. I'll provide rock, bird, and nature ID and teach you how and where to look for all sorts of treasures.

Along this stretch, I have found sea glass in snowy white, clear, chartreuse green, gold, amber, brown, lilac, aqua, pale aqua, and deep aquamarine blue; chalcedony and agates of white, gold, cream, light green, amber, red, and grey; geodes; hag stones; bizarre metamorphic formations; sedimentary shales; porphyritic basalt; vesicular basalt and pumice; a weird pale bluish-green volcanic tuff (my favorite); colorful conglomerates and concretions; jaspers in red, ochre, yellow, black, and the famous deep forest green Oregon Green Jasper; calcite crystals both loose and tucked into cavities; mica; Asian pottery shards; pieces of pre-war vintage glass cookware; fishing weights; chunks from the windscreens of shipwrecks; shells of snow white whelks, sand dollars, clams, turban snails, mussels, shore crab pincers and Dungeness carapaces, three kinds of limpets; and all sorts of freaky sea creature stuff. The tides shift the beach around every week so it will be fun to see what we find.

We'll stroll down 0.25 miles of gravel along the narrow gauge railroad tracks and then scramble down an 8' drop of boulders to the shingle (all stones, no sand) beach below. The loose stones sit on a shifting incline so trekking poles recommended. Here, we'll explore photogenic Crab Rock and it's hidden tunnel and look for jellyfish, anemones, whelks, and sculpins in the tidepools.

Then, we'll move very slowly for 0.5 miles down the beach, rockhounding and wildlife watching as we go, ascend another steep user trail, and walk back on the tracks. We'll pause along the way to sit on rocks and admire the view as the mood strikes us.

Seals usually pop out of the water to get a look at you and I have heard locals mention orcas in the channel. There is a pair of resident bald eagles and a magnificent view of Tillamook Bay with a variety of winter waterfowl. The mixed forest along the tracks is bopping with thrushes, finches, and warblers in season. A photogenic Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad engine chugs by every few hours and the Garibaldi Historic U.S. Coastguard Boathouse is picturesque in the distance.

Bring $10 cash, sturdy hiking boots, WEATHER appropriate clothing, trekking poles/walking stick, water, snacks, binoculars, camera equipment, and something to put your rock stash in (I like Ziploc bags). No restroom on site but good ones nearby at the Barview Jetty County Campground. Adults only, please, and no pets, thanks.