You access "Second Beach" from a trailhead near the little town of LaPush on the Olympic Peninsula. What a wonderfully wild and beautiful place! My friend Darrel and I went there last summer while researching our book "Roadside Geology of Washington, 2ed" --to replace the much older 1st edition. Still a long way to go though, but we're hoping it will be out by October, 2017?
I like this photo partly because it illustrates how headlands erode. You can see a sea stack just past the point of this headland, and you can see the arch --it's all on a continuum. Before long, that arch will collapse --and the tip of today's headland will become a sea stack. Personally, I find this process kind of mind-boggling because whenever I see a sea stack, I think how the land used to extend at least that far.
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On to the next photo: Kautz and Nisqually Glaciers on Mt. Rainier, Washington.
Back to the last photo: Glacial Cirque, Grinnell Glacier, Montana.
Back to Ten favorite geology photos from 2015