Point Whitehorn is a popular Whatcom County Park south of Birch Bay State Park. After a short walk thru the woods, stairs lead down to the beach. This is an excellent site to view the feeder bluffs and a huge variety of erratic rocks and boulders. Basically the landscape here resulted from the multiple ice sheets that advanced and retreated along with changes in sea level.
The ice sheets brought rocks, sand, and silt south from Canada. As ice sheets melted and retreated back north, all of that stuff was left behind. Consequently we see bluffs of glacial till that erode easily and feed all of that stuff onto the beaches. By walking either way from the stairs to the beach you will observe eroded gullies into the bluffs and areas of slumping “bluff stuff” including the trees that came down when the slump occurred.
One of the most visually striking sights along the beach and out in the surf is the many massive boulders. These are the biggest of the erratic rocks left by the ice sheets. However by paying attention to the smaller rocks under your feet you will see an even wider variety. The image gallery below identifies some of the rocks seen on a short beach walk.
