Freshwater Bay County Park

Freshwater Bay County Park sits about 10 miles west of Port Angeles on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Access follows State Route 112 to Freshwater Bay Road, then runs 3 miles north to the park at 2298 Freshwater Bay Road. The bay itself is shallow, with patches of kelp, eelgrass, and a mixed sand-and-cobble bottom that make for a sheltered beginner-to-intermediate dive along an otherwise exposed stretch of coast.

The park covers about 21 acres with roughly 1,450 lineal feet of public tidelands, and its concrete ramp is the primary sheltered small-boat launch on this stretch of Clallam County shoreline. The upper 5-acre picnic area is open from May 15 through September 15, while the lower ramp, beach, and vault toilet stay open year-round. Marine mammal encounters have been documented as common at Freshwater Bay, including resident harbor seals and passing cetaceans.

Three biomes come together in the bay. Patches of bull kelp anchored on the shallow rock form a kelp forest biome across the outer bay. Along the sand, documented eelgrass beds make up a seagrass biome that runs into the mixed cobble. Where the substrate breaks to bare rock, a rocky reef biome carries beneath the kelp canopy. The sheltered geography of the bay makes Freshwater Bay a common early-season destination for scuba and snorkeling.

Parking is spread between an upper overflow area and the lower lot at the ramp. The ramp is small and completely exposed at low tide, which makes launch and retrieval difficult on a big minus tide, and the bay takes a west wind on the water when the strait blows down its long fetch. No marine protected area covers Freshwater Bay. Under WDFW Marine Area 6 rules, rockfish retention is prohibited and lingcod spearfishing is enforced within a May 21 through June 15 window.