Fox Island East Wall

Diving a new site is always exciting. Earlier in my diving career, I had heard rumors of the fantastic, current strewn walls at Fox Island off of Toy Point. My dive buddy and I were extremely anxious to dive this well-known location. In fact, we were so excited, we got here about 60 minutes before we needed to just to scope out the area on a clear Spring day in April of 2000. When we got here, we were surprised to find a rather well maintained little park, with no one here but ourselves. We also noted that the park was located WELL above the water, and the pathway from the park to the water looked like a shore divers nightmare as it was so long. Regardless, we raced down the path with anticipation to the waterÕs edge, only to find what could be described as a HUGE swirly. Several whirlpools were dominating the otherwise placid waters, one of which was rather large Š much larger than both of our egos combined. The substantive water movements on the surface made us both think briefly if our life insurance was paid up. My dive buddy then looked at me and said "I am not diving in THERE!". If we hadnÕt driven for about an hour to get here, I might have agreed and just packed up and went somewhere a bit tamer. "Relax", I said, acting like I knew what was going on when I really didnÕt. " We are here WAY early. LetÕs see what it looks like in an hour, when we are scheduled to go in". An hour later, we were geared up and back at the waterÕs edge. The currents had subsided, as did our concerns, and we had a great dive.

Dive Site Overview: Like many of the dive sites in our area, it is these currents that make this site so interesting. This is another of those dives that is worth doing for the structure alone. The walls start right off the beach access point. If you enter the water from shore, you can wade out to about three feet of water and start snorkeling. DonÕt wade out too far on a low tide, or you might step right off the edge of the wall! The first wall drops from about 5-10 feet of water (on a low tide) to about 30 Š 40 feet. It is sheer and actually spans in both directions from the entry point. At the base of the wall, the substrate flattens out. However, if you follow the slope down to about 50 fsw, you will find a series of fingers and smaller walls. This is the area that I like to explore and usually find the more interesting critters. As the top wall is relatively flat and featureless, the lower portion offer a very uneven terrain that offers sanctuary to a few larger critters. The bottom walls end in about 70-80 fsw. I have been down to about 105 fsw at this site, and did not note anything interesting terrain wise below the 80 fsw mark.

Not many people seem to dive here. The times I have been here, we have been the only divers present. I think the walk down the hill, the drive out here, and currents ward off most people.

Marine Life: Almost all of the terrain consists of small cobblestones trapped in sandstone, similar to portions of Dalco Wall. This mix makes it very difficult for most forms of invertebrate marine life to get a solid foothold. However, we do find the occasional Giant Pacific Octopus and Wolf-eels hiding in places where they can get out of the strong currents. On one dive here, we found a rather put-out Giant Pacific in the open that had just captured it's lunch.Ź It did NOT want un-invited lunch guests.Ź However, we persisting on crashing the party and got to observe the octopus devour the last of it's meal before it jetted of into the deep.Ź Also expect to find some sea stars, the ever present Red Sea Cucumber, a few large sculpins like Buffalo Sculpins and Red Irish Lords,Ź and small rockfish. Orange Spotted Nudibranchs, White Lined Dironas and Nanaimo Dorids add a bit of color to the otherwise bland background. Painted Greenlings and even an occasional Lingcod will hang here on occasion. However, if you want to get really into this site, you have to look at things very closely. Countless shrimp (mainly Dock Shrimp with small blue spots), small gunnels, sculpins, and crabs thrive in this environment. If you are not careful, it is easy to pass over these little guys and never even know they are their.

Getting Here: Getting here can be done in one of two ways Š by land or by sea. The dive site is located off of Toy Point, which is located on the southeast end of Fox Island. To get here by car from Seattle is a bit of a drive, being about 50 miles or so. From Seattle, cross the Narrows Bridge and follow the signs to the Fox Island Bridge. Once across the Fox Island Bridge, follow Ford Drive to 9th, take a right onto 9th, then a quick left onto Kamus Drive. Follow this road which will become Island Boulevard, then Mowitch, then 14th, and finally Ozette. You will see a park at the end of Ozette.

The park is well equipped. There is a $1 parking fee collected to maintain this nice facility. There are very adequate bathrooms and picnic areas. There are two accesses to the water Š one is a rather long, meandering pathways that weaves down to the water, and the other is the "direct root", which is accessed by a staircase to your right when facing the water. The hike tot he water is substantial and should not be taken lightly. It is not as long as the Sunrise Beach hike, but it is steep. It can also be VERY slippery when wet, especially when leaves are on the ground.

When diving here, we usually enter the water right in front of where the "direct route" accesses the beach.

If coming by water, this site is easily located as it is just south of the rather prominent public fishing pier at Toy Point Š it is hard to miss as it is the only one in the Toy Point area.

Hazards: Current here can be a real gotcha. My observations are that slack is about one hour before that at the Tacoma Narrow, on either slack before flood or ebb. I have done several dives here when currents are in excess of 2.5 knots at the Narrows, and those dives have been very manageable current wise. In fact on one dive, we were diving a 1.6 knot flood that turned to a 3.2 knot ebb, and we seemed to encounter minimal current at slack. On a dive where we went down to 105 fsw at this location we encounter a little bit of current that was attempting pulling down the slope, but we were able to easily cope with it. We did not notice this current once we got back to the base of the lower walls (at about 70 fsw). Waterfalling currents, at least off the wall, are a consideration.

The walk down the water, as noted earlier, is not for the out of shape. If you do not dive Sunrise Beach as a shore dive because of the hike, you probably will not want to dive this site by shore either.

Other considerations are the fishing peer, fishing gear in the water, and possible boat traffic, especially in Summer.

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