BOTTLE BEACH STATE PARK
Bottle Beach State Park is a 64-acre day-use park with 6,000 feet of shoreline on Grays Harbor. The open tide flats are the park's most significant feature. Mud flats in the area support a rich supply of invertebrates that attract shorebirds as they migrate from Central and South America to their breeding grounds in the Arctic.
Grays Harbor is considered the single most important shorebird feeding area on the Pacific Coast, attracting more than a million birds each spring. Up to 20 percent of these migrating birds use the area just off Bottle Beach, which has been designated an Important Bird Area by the Audubon Society. Large numbers of migratory waterfowl also use the area. Raptors such as peregrine falcons visit the area because of the abundant prey available. In all, more than 130 species of birds have been observed at Bottle Beach.
Dogs are only allowed at the park during hunting season, from November through February. Service dogs are allowed at all times.
The park is open dawn to dusk year round.
The Bottle Beach Interpretive Trail consists of a trailhead, parking lot, 0.7 miles of ADA accessible trail, three wildlife viewing platforms or blinds and approximately 9.5 acres of restored habitat.
Bottle Beach State Park is located on the historic town site of Ocosta. Near the end of the 19th century, plans were made to establish a deep water port in the Grays Harbor area. The Northern Pacific Railroad chose Ocosta for its Pacific Ocean terminus, thus providing an avenue for imports and exports to find their way by land. As the boom ensued, prospective investors from the east were solicited, "...nothing can prevent making this the most important harbor north of San Francisco, if not the chief harbor of this Pacific Coast," read an early advertisement.
Soon, the Ocosta settlement sprouted with a school, three hotels, three churches, a bank, post office, the Ocosta Lumber Company and the Ocosta Brewing Company. Aspirations for an ocean harbor soon deteriorated as an economic downturn, railroad realignmnet and sedimentation undermined the possibility of Ocosta becoming a principle port. Time slipped away as Ocosta by the Sea slowly became the landscape you see today.
A Discover Pass is required for vehicle access to Washington state parks for day use. For more information about the Discover Pass and exemptions, please visit the
Discover Pass web page.