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Trip Report    

Sea Kayak - Eld Inlet

We explored lower Eld Inlet on 2/10/18. We had sunshine, high 49 degrees, and light variable wind.

  • Road suitable for all vehicles
  • Boat launch at Young Cove has limited parking.  We had 4 cars and there was plenty of room since no other boats were launching that day.   

    There are portapotties at the launch site.   Address is 2414 Gravelly Beach Loop Road NW, Olympia,WA.    Fee is $5 per boat to launch.  

    We launched at 10 a.m. which was about one hour 15 minutes past low tide at Rocky Point which was 8.31 ft.  High tide was predicted to be 13.10 ft in the early afternoon.

    We crossed to east side of Eld Inlet, then followed it down.  We had a pre arranged stop at private property where we toured and had a leisurely lunch for an hour.   

    We continued paddling south under Mud Bay and Hwy 101  bridges.    We continued to the end of the inlet and up McLane Creek to a manmade log barrier before turning around.   There were shallow areas to avoid but deep enough channels available.  We followed west side of Eld inlet back to the cars.    

    Capitol Land Trust has preserves along Eld Inlet and they prefer kayakers not land there due to impact on wildlife.    There is  in addition some poison oak in the area I was told.

     

     

We ended up paddling 11.4 nm because of the excellent weather and the decision to go as far south as we could in the inlet.     We had a party of 6.   See route conditions above.   We arrived back at our cars about 4 pm.     We celebrated afterwards at Shipwreck Cafe.

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