Flying Grays Harbor July 2023

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Back in July I flew out to Grays Harbor on the Washington coast to knock out the last three Fly Washington Passport Stamps I had to collect to finish the 18 airports in the Olympic Region!! Gray’s Harbor is surrounded by several airports and is the mouth of the Chehalis River.

Grays Harbor is surrounded by airports! Not visited was the unique public beach airport of Copalis State – yes, you land ON THE BEACH!! and the mysterious “Grayland Intergalactic” private strip, lol
Aerial photo of the turquoise waters of Hood Canal, 2 July 2023 by Daryl Greaser
Hood Canal is absolutely gorgeous from the air. Originally known as “tuwaduq sidaqʷ” [too-wah-duke SEE-dock] by the Skykomish people, it’s actually a 60-mile long fjord, carved in the ice age. Allegedly. 😉
Look at the color of that water!!
Aerial photo of The Great Bend of Hood Canal, Skokomish Flats (mouth of the Skokomish River) visible to the left. 2 July 2023 by Daryl Greaser
The Great Bend of Hood Canal, Skokomish Flats (mouth of the Skokomish River) visible to the left.
Aerial photo of Sanderson / Shelton Field (SHN) with Washington State Highway Patrol Academy visible. 2 July 2023 by Daryl Greaser
Sanderson Field – Shelton (SHN) airport. Note the triangular format, indicative of an old WW2 base, known as Naval Air Station Shelton. Note the track to the bottom right, which is on the grounds of the Washington State Highway Patrol Academy.
Ridge Motorsports Park
Washington Corrections Center, aka Prison.
Aberdeen, Hoquiam, Grays Harbor, and Bowerman Airport (HQM) straight ahead.
Bowerman/Hoquiam is unusal in that it has a 5000 x 150-foot strip, but other than gas and hangars, zero services. Seems like it must be maintained as an emergency landing facility.
Short hop over Grays Harbor to Ocean Shores, visible at top right. Westport is off the wing, and below left appears to be some kind of aquaculture – oysters? I dunno.
Aerial photo of the Right downwind for Runway 33 at Ocean Shores (W04)
Right downwind for Runway 33 at Ocean Shores (W04)
The sign underneath the plane says “No Parking” oops! I was only here about 5 minutes though!
Oyhut Wildlife Refuge, surrounded by homes. The North Jetty is visible at the top of the land mass. Off in the distance about 5,000 miles is Hawaii!
Departing Ocean Shores, headed to Westport, just across the water.
3rd stamp of the day marks the completion of the Olympic Region!!
Departing Westport airport (14S) (at the top of the green space). Not much at the airport but you can walk the short distance into town for a variety of activities.
Aerial photo of Aberdeen, Washington. This is the town that Kurt Cobain, the leader of the 90s grunge band Nirvana, grew up. This town also has a Star Wars store!
Cooling towers at Satsop Business Park, Elma, Washington, aka the nuclear power plant that never was! (Cooling towers and other buildings were built, but the power plant was never completed
Tahoma (Mt Rainier) towers over the south Sound.

What a great trip! I have now completed both the Northwest and Olympic Regions, consisting of 23 and 18 airports, respectively. I may eventually complete the Southwest Region as well, but have no plans to visit all of the ones in the central and eastern part of the state. My next mission is to visit all of the non-stamp airports that are left, including a bunch of grass runways. What a great program!

All of the airports I visited in the Olympic and Northwest Regions. My favorite was Point Roberts (1RL), an American enclave at the north end of the Salish Sea, only accessible by plane or boat unless you drive through Canada to get there! We airplane camped there!

3 thoughts on “Flying Grays Harbor July 2023”

  1. My sweet flying love!

    It makes me happy that when I saw the photo of SHN the first thing I noticed was the triangle and I thought to myself “must’ve been military” before I read the caption. =D

    The water is so green at Hood Canal!! And it’s a fjord! I wonder what the indigenous name is; it was of course named by white guy George Vancouver. 🙄🙄🙄

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