Flagpole Point

Flagpole Point is an offshore boat dive on the west side of Hood Canal, off Lilliwaup and adjacent to Mike's Beach Resort. Local divers call it "the Knuckle" for the shape of the reef, which rises from the seafloor as a knuckled ridge of rock formations set like a small mountain range. The top of the main reef sits at about 65 feet, and the base runs 80 to 90 feet moving east. Shallower reef fingers rise to roughly 20 feet, and beyond the main structure the bottom flattens to silt with scattered boulders to the south and a boulder field to the north.

The site is one of four in Hood Canal that carries a Washington Scuba Alliance mooring buoy, alongside Pulali Point's west face, the Pinnacle, and Broken Leg. That designation puts Flagpole Point on the standard central-Hood-Canal charter rotation, and YSS Dive Charters runs it as a two-tank destination. It sits farther offshore than the Hoodsport wall dives, which is what keeps it in the boat-dive category rather than the shore-dive one.

Structurally Flagpole Point is a rocky reef biome, and it is notable for a feature more common in deeper Puget Sound water. Cloud sponges form colonies at the base of the reef, which is rare to encounter at recreational depths. Wolf eels and giant Pacific octopus occupy the crevices, and lingcod use the site as an egg-laying area through winter and spring. Only scuba is practical here; the depth and offshore position rule out snorkeling.

Access is boat-only. The nearest public ramp is Seabeck, on the east side of the canal about 11 miles away. Triton Cove State Park to the north and Hood Canal Marina at Union to the south are also used. Because the site sits well off the shoreline, tidal exchange runs across it, and charter operators pick their day based on tides and weather. Take is prohibited under 2026 Marine Area 12 rules, which close all bottomfish and forage fish including every rockfish species and lingcod, and wolf eel and giant Pacific octopus are non-take species statewide.