(please scroll right -->)
This bay on Whidbey Island (about 30 miles north of Seattle) is named Useless Bay because it was too shallow for the tall ships of the early explorers. The tide goes out nearly a mile exposing a vast expanse of sandy tide flats that attract a lot of strollers, dog walkers, and even horsemen. It is anything but useless.

The lagoon in the foreground is called Sunlight Lagoon. Useless Bay is beyond the sand spit separating the lagoon from the bay. The dark bluff across the bay is Double Bluff and the beach at its base stretches over a mile along the bluff toward the west with the Olympic Mountains in view across Puget Sound.

This is the view from the beach below my home. The view is ever changing and always spectacular. This particular sunset was one of the most beautiful I have seen. The clouds were high enough over the Olympic Mountains that they glowed with the light reflected from the Pacific Ocean, over 100 miles distant, at about 10 minutes after sunset on 8/18/04.