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Hi Tide Resort Nearby But Far From Seabrook

By Wm. May
Published: 06/11/23 Topics: Hi-Tide Resort, Moclips Beach WA, Ocean Shores WA, Pacific Beach, Seabrook Resort, Wildlife Comments: 1

We love our neighbor to the south. Seabrook Resort has brought more visibility and new visitors to Washington State's North Beaches from Ocean Shores to Moclips.

Now with 500 new homes perched on a cliff to the south of the town of Pacific Beach, it boasts stores, restaurants, a town hall for weddings, and thousands of neighbors. Newspapers have extolled its virtues and praised the developers for this "New Urbanism"

We are not sure what that means, but praise of our beaches is nothing new. Over 118 years ago, Seattleites hopped trains to "Visit The Shore" at Moclips Beach. and to stave off the city's sweltering summer heat in our warm clime moderated by the refreshing Pacific Ocean.

Since the advent of the automobile, families have zipped to the North Beaches to jump the waves, dig razor clams, collect shells, make sand castles, and watch the sun sink slowly in the west. This is where folks come to getaway, to relax and to invigorate their souls.

At Seabrook, you can pay big money to rent a vacation home for a week or weekend. Or you can rent a moderately priced oceanfront condo at Hi-Tide Resort directly on Moclips' Moonstone beach. And there is a difference here...

From Seabrook town center you will get to trudge 2,000 steps and then descend 200 steep stair steps just to reach the sand, with the ocean another several hundred feet beyond that. While at Hi-Tide you only need to stroll a pleasant 99 steps directly through the level dunes to the ocean. (No steps.)

Of course, if you want to stretch your legs further, you can walk for miles down the coast. And never need go back up any stairs.

Most homes at Seabrook don't have a view, while every one of our condos looks directly out to the rolling surf. The few Seabrook homes that do have a peek-a-boo view may provide binoculars or telescopes, in hopes guests can catch a fleeting glance at seabirds and boats on the horizon.

But you won't need binoculars at Hi-Tide. You can sit on the deck, put your feet up, smell the salty air and marvel as thousands of seabirds swoop and soar directly overhead.

In some seasons there are actually millions of acrobatic Rock Sandpipers, Wandering tattlers, Surfbirds and Black Turnstones migrating from Arctic feedings grounds far to the south. They pass directly overhead and just off the shore.

We must admit Hi-Tide has no swanky restaurants and no tony stores. But if you just can't wait to spend lots of money, take the 8 minute drive to Seabrook. Then after blowing all your cash, zip right back to Hi-Tide to spend all day and all night listening to the ocean and the birds.

Maybe you'll even see that legendary green flash as the golden sun drops below the westerly horizon each evening.

So how about this for a plan - Make a short pit stop at Seabrook to jostle with all the tourists and spend all your money. But stay directly on Moclips Beach at Hi-Tide Resort to rest, relax and recreate.

Precious Gift of Nature

By Ron Lee
Published: 06/19/20 Topics: Guest Ranch, Wildlife Comments: 0

Our early morning visitors.

This lovely doe has twins almost yearly and generally brings them by for us to see. This year she brought them by as BRAND NEW babies! They were still wet even.

What a precious gift!

The Diamond Belle Guest Ranch sits in what might be called a shallow bowl. The hills of the Okanogan Highland isolate us from the South and North. To the West Mount Bonaparte towers above..

Pastures on the east, roll up gently so we are completely alone. No neighbors. No prying eyes. No one close.

National Forest public lands surround the ranch on all sides which means we are a haven for wildlife. Deer of course, but also an occasional Moose. Canadian Geeze and birds galore..

Guests come here for many reasons, peace and solitude, the crisp clean air, stunning sunlight and our warm majestic Wauconda Lodge.

But it is the critters they see that surprise them, the many and the types. You are likely to see some you have never seen before. But you must visit.

Author: Ron Lee, Diamond Belle Guest Ranch
Blog #: 0762 – 06/19/20

767 Acres wilderness guest ranch, surrounded by thousands of acres of forest service, with 44 acre private fly fishing Walker Lake. Majestic Wauconda lodge sleeps up to 23 over night guests, and up to 250 daily visitors for private weddings and groups. Nearby by but far from Spokane, Wenatchee and Seattle Tacoma. – DiamondBelleRanch.com

Dark Skies at Diamond Belle Guest Ranch

By Ron Lee
Published: 11/15/19 Topics: Gratitude, Guest Ranch, Ranching, Wildlife Comments: 0

Because Diamond Belle Guest Ranch is so high in the Okanogan Highlands, because our 700 acres are surrounded by National Forest and mountains, and because neighbors are so far away you might be presuming that nights are pitch black dark here.

But you would be wrong.

Here, with the absence of man made ambient light, not even with the most unintentional, when dusk falls the skies explode awake, the stars jab the sky and put on a show that humans have been marveling at since they first looked up.

The International Dark Sky Places (IDSP) Program was founded in 2001 to encourage communities, parks and protected areas around the world to preserve and protect dark sites through responsible lighting policies and public education.

The idea is to turn off lights, redirect downward those which must stay on, and send no light skyward because it destroys the view of the cosmos and is, after all, a great waste of energy.

When the lights go out, the Diamond Bell returns to a time where thing slowed down, where our senses woke up, and where our minds can soar to the sky, to the solar system and to the universe beyond.

It can open the mind, excite creativity, and produce emotions of health, happiness and safety.

There are over 130 destinations in the world that have pledged to eliminate light pollution and return the heavens to their dark but stunning origin.

Although Diamond Belle Ranch is not yet an official member of Dark Sky initiative, we support the goals of the group and have taken definitive steps to douse our lights, lessen our reliance on electrical usage and yet provide the comforts that guests prefer.

Best of all, Dark Skies ensure that our guests arrive at a place perhaps like no other they have ever been. A place of peace and quiet blanketed with the stars, the moon and a joy they may never have experienced and may find no where else.

Author: Ron Lee, Diamond Belle Ranch
Blog #: 0724 – 11/15/19

767 Acres wilderness guest ranch, surrounded by thousands of acres of forest service, with 44 acre private fly fishing Walker Lake. Majestic Wauconda lodge sleeps up to 23 over night guests, and up to 250 daily visitors for private weddings and groups. Nearby by but far from Spokane, Wenatchee and Seattle Tacoma. – DiamondBelleRanch.com

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