After my last dive here a week ago, I realized that I was unsuccessful in finding the rocky reef I was looking for. I came back today (Sept. 8, 2018) to try again. Unfortunately, after hiking down the trail, I saw that the tide was very low. The spot that I entered the water last time was now a 10-foot cliff dropping down to the water. I ended up stumbling across a slippery, seaweed-covered field of boulders and entered the water in the small bay. It was also a bit of a windy day and there was enough of a swell to make this entry even more uncomfortable.
Once in the water, I swam down the rocky slope to the sandy bottom about 30' deep. The shallows were stirred-up from the waves, but it cleared up below 20' deep.
I started following my compass (North-East) out towards where I was hoping the rocky area was. This time I biased my compass heading a bit to the East to make sure I didn't swim too far to the North like last time. Eventually, I reached a depth of 70' and knew I had missed the reef. I changed direction to the North and soon came across a steep slope of boulders leading up to a large, solid rocky reef.
The depth here was about 75' deep. I followed the reef out away from shore. There were sections of the reef where it dropped down in a wall with more boulders stretching out at its base. Feather stars were everywhere. There were lots of quillback, Puget Sound, yellowtail, juvenile yelloweye, and tiger rockfish. Before swarms of people excitedly dash over here to kill them, they mostly seemed to be young (around 6"). Hopefully the small size will dampen the lust to wipe them out. Maybe in 20 years or so, if they're left alone, they will develop into a healthy population of adults. Visibility by the way, was a very nice 50-80'.
So far the base of the rock reef was about 80' deep. I saw a boulder/rocky area sloping off deeper. I followed it down to about 100'. The rocky area continued down a bit deeper, but I was hoping to maximize my dive time so I didn't follow it down to its end. I was expecting to find some sponges down here, but I didn't see any.
I swam back up to the main reef and had a look at its shallower depths. Most of its "peak" was around 45' deep, but I could see shallower areas off in the distance. It was difficult to see anything on the rocks since they were covered with blades of bottom kelp. I continued swimming out along the reef and saw a wide sandy gap cutting through the rock about 60' deep. This gap in the reef was maybe 30-40' across.
My limited air supply forced me to turn around and swim back along the reef towards shore. This rocky area is close to 300 meters long and factoring in the depths and distance from shore, there's no way to see it all on one dive (except maybe with a scooter and a rebreather).
I reached the near-shore end of the reef. The sand here was about 45' deep. I followed my compass back to shore through the murky, wave-stirred shallows. Getting out of the water was just as "fun" as getting in.
With the good visibility, interesting topography and abundant (but not many adult) rockfish, I thought this was an excellent dive. With the rugged trail and long swim, this is a dive site that makes you work for it. In the future, I'll make sure to dive here on a calm day at high tide.
