On the western side of Willapa Bay, the Long Beach Peninsula stretches for 28 miles of hard-packed sandy beaches along the roiling Pacific Ocean. Away from the few small towns, beaches and breakers abound along here, and you won’t have any problem finding peace and solitude. The center of activity on the Long Beach Peninsula is the town of Long Beach, two miles west of US-101, with a wanderable collection of crafts galleries and souvenir shops, and one of the coast’s best B&Bs, the historic Shelburne Inn ($125–185; 360/642-2442), in the Seaview neighborhood at Pacific Way (aka Hwy-103, the main road) and 45th Street. The Shelburne also houses a friendly pub and a very good restaurant, The Shoalwater, rated by many as the best on the Washington coast. At the other end of the taste range, Long Beach is also the home of the “World’s Largest Frying Pan,” which hangs on a rack in front of the one-of-a-kind Marsh’s Free Museum, a totally tacky (and wonderfully kitsch) collection of postcards, peep shows, and old-time arcade games on Pacific Way near 10th Street.
The rest of the peninsula is quite quiet, dotted with cranberry bogs and historic fishing and oystering towns. In Nahcotta, a dozen miles north of Long Beach, The Ark (360/665-4133) is another of Washington’s most highly regarded restaurants, and you can stay overnight at the cozy Moby Dick Hotel and Oyster Farm ($75–120; 360/665-4543), at 25814 Sandridge Road. Just north, Oysterville is the peninsula’s oldest community, with some nifty historic homes dating back to the 1850s. The peninsula comes to an end in the north at Leadbetter Point State Park, a great place for watching gulls, hawks, eagles, and migratory seabirds passing through on the Great Pacific Flyway.
For further information on the Long Beach Peninsula, contact the visitors bureau (360/642-2400 or 800/451-2542) at the US-101/Hwy-103 junction.
