Salt Creek Recreation Area

Salt Creek Recreation Area sits at Joyce in unincorporated Clallam County, about 15 miles west of Port Angeles by way of State Route 112. The dive enters from a stairway near campsite 63 in the county park, with the westernmost set of stairs leading down to Tongue Point, a flat rocky reef that goes under at high tide. Wave-carved rock canyons and thick bull kelp define the near shore, and past roughly 45 feet of depth the site turns advanced-only. The site is consistently ranked among Washington's best shore dives.

The park sits on the site of Camp Hayden, a World War 2 coastal-defense installation whose concrete remnants remain above ground on the bluff. At the western end of the park, Tongue Point was designated a marine life sanctuary after harvesters had stripped the intertidal of mussels, urchins, and kelp; those populations have since recovered under the closure.

Two biomes define the underwater at Salt Creek. The wave-carved rock canyons and the flat reef off Tongue Point make up a rocky reef biome, where documented Puget Sound bottomfish are joined by green, red, and purple sea urchins carpeting the substrate in massive numbers. Thick bull kelp growing up from the same rock forms a kelp forest biome above the reef, with large plumose anemones anchored to the reef structure below the canopy. Scuba and snorkeling are the two documented activities.

Day-use parking is free inside the park, and camping runs from $37 to $59 per night depending on utilities and residency. Conditions are best on small tidal exchanges with minimal wind and low or no swell, and high tide is the standing recommendation for the entry over Tongue Point. Take of any marine life is prohibited within the Tongue Point Marine Life Sanctuary at the park's western end, enforced under Clallam County ordinance; beyond the sanctuary, rockfish retention is prohibited throughout the surrounding Marine Area 6 waters and lingcod spearfishing is enforced within a May 21 through June 15 window.