Lighthouse awaits at the end of this hike

A hot summer day with a cool breeze blowing off the water is the perfect time to hike out to the New Dungeness Lighthouse.

It's an 11-mile round trip hike that is easiest when the tide is lowest.

Starting your hike around an hour before lowest tide will provide the best walking conditions.  The entire hike is on sand and the further out the tide, the firmer the sand will be for walking.

The Dungeness Spit is the longest natural spit in the world and at its end is the New Dungeness Lighthouse.

There are plenty of birds to see along the way, and there is a good chance you will see eagles.

In fact, your hike must be taken on the Strait of Juan de Fuca outward side of the spit because the inner side toward Dungeness Bay and the Olympic Mountains is a wildlife sanctuary.

More than 250 species of birds and 41 species of land animals call the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge home.

The lighthouse has tours available.

The 63-foot tall lighthouse made of brick, stucco and sandstone first opened in 1857 and was automated in 1976.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 30, 1993.

There is a beautiful green lawn at the lighthouse that provides a perfect place to rest after the long hike.  There are also a few picnic tables and a clean restroom available, plus a drinking fountain fed by an artesian well.

Allow a little over four hours to complete the round trip on top of whatever stops you make.

The spit itself grows an average of 15 feet in length per year and is fed by landslides on the lengthy bluff west of it, which is a glacial moraine left over from the last ice age.

New Dungeness was named by British explorer George Vancouver in 1792 because of its resemblance to the Dungeness headland on the British Channel in England.

How to get there:

From US Highway 101 west of Sequim, Washington turn north on Kitchen-Dick Road.

Continue three miles on Kitchen-Dick Road to the Dungeness Recreation Area.

You go through the recreation area to the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge parking lot.

The hike starts off going through a forested area on a bluff overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  You pay a $3 entrance fee at the trailhead.

Call (360) 683-6638 for more information.

Text and photos by Jeff Clinton.  Tim Clinton also contributed to this report.