Since I found that the good part of this dive site was actually the reef at Cottam Point, I haven't thought of diving here in awhile. Recently, I've heard from a local diver that there is actually a long series of walls at various depths down past 150 feet fairly close to the shore off the park. Looking at the chart, I realised that my previous navigation has been off. There are 2 small coves in this area with a flat, rocky "point" in between. I've entered at the one closest to Cottam Point, thinking that it was the other one shown on the chart. So I've been swimming in the wrong direction. This time (Oct. 9, 2010), I entered the water off the rocky point  and swam towards the other side of North-West Bay. In the shallows, the flat sandstone was covered with rockweed and schools of small perch. There was a sparse patch of bull kelp and then the rock dropped down in a wall between 20 and 40 feet deep. Visibility was about 50 feet. This wall had some overhangs that were covered with tube worms. Some areas were swarming with piles of green urchins. At the base of this wall there was a slope of sandstone slabs and rubble that ended about 70- feet deep. This area seemed  a bit brown and silty, but there were groups of copper and quillback rockfish and the occasional tiger rockfish. I looked around for wolfeels, but I didn't see any. Below 70 feet deep there was a sandy slope with tube-dwelling anemones, nudibranchs, sea pens, crimson anemones and some small, branching sponges. I went down to about 100 feet, but I didn't see any rocky areas down here. Maybe if I swam a bit to the right or left I would have seen the beginning of a wall. I saw some seals and sealions on the surface, but I didn't see any underwater.
painted greenling
seastars in shallows
bull kelp
bull kelp
perch in shallows
urchins
overhang in wall
coper rockfish on wall
tube worms
urchins at base of wall
wall
overhang on wall
nudibranch on kelp
sea pen at 100 feet
large sea pen
tiger rockfish
tiger rockfish on rubble slope
crimson anemone at 100 feet
feather star and orange plumose anemone at bottom of rubble slope
rubble slope
nudibranchs on sandy slope
branching sponge and tube-dwelling anemones on sandy slope
tube-dwelling anemone
quillback rockfish on rubble slope
quillback rockfish
small lingcod and urchins at base of wall
ledge near wall
sea star and urchins on wall
seastar and urchins on wall
ledge on wall
nudibranch and tube worms on wall
zoanthids on wall
overhanging wall
ledge on wall
next to wall
tube worms
overhang in wall
South end of wall
next to end of wall
nudibranch
at top of wall
seastar at top of wall
nudibranch and cup coral
top of rubble slope
sparse bull kelp
looking up at bull kelp from top of wall
lion's mane above wall
small anemone on wall
tube worm
painted greenling
seastars in shallows
seastars in shallows
seastars in shallows
moon jelly
perch near surface
rockweed and perch in shallows
sunflower star in shallows
rockweed