The area has changed quite a bit since 2003 when this was
hidden. It's now a real park and not just land that only birders
know about. I'll leave the rest of the info for posterity and leave
the hint the same though it isn't as helpful as it once
was.
Bottle Beach is pretty much unknown to everyone outside the
birding community. In the spring, fall, and winter you can find
thousands of shorebirds searching for food in the mudflats. Not
many birds when we went, just a couple hundred Brant, gulls, loon,
and some cormorants. It was low tide so no shorebirds, at least
none close enough for us to see.
Near the turn of the century Ocosta was poised to be a major
town in Grays Harbor but like the story of so many other towns in
the west the railroad changed it’s history. The railroad
never made it out here and all that remains of what was once a
bustling port are the pilings seen on this beach. I’ve been
told that the large tree standing by itself near the entrance to
the beach is called the Hanging Tree because that’s where
justice was instituted way back when.
Cache is a blue-lidded plastic container. Hopefully it is hidden
far enough off the beach to be safe from high tides.
Parking lot is almost impossible to find if you don’t know
where it is. Coordinates to the parking lot are: N 46º
53.559’ W 124º 02.617’
Terrain is marked a 1.5 because you must walk over sand, gravel,
potentially partly overgrown trail, and dirt trail. It’s only
about a ¼ mile flat walk. Our 5 and 7 year old kids helped hide
this one.
For more information about birding at Bottle Beach or for
directions to the place check out this website: http://www.ghas.org/bottle.html
NOTE: Cache is not beyond the barbed wire fence. I assume
that marks the park boundaries.