Cape Flattery the northwest tip of the lower 48
— the corner where the map runs out of land.
Not only on a wall.
“The continent's furthest north-west corner, on the Makah Reservation at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula. A short cedar boardwalk drops through old-growth forest to four wooden platforms cantilevered above sea caves. Tatoosh Island sits offshore with its small lighthouse, automated since the 1970s. Vancouver Island sits across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Gray whales pass close in spring. Most of the year the wind is doing something to the water. The Makah have lived here for thousands of years and issue a Recreation Pass at the village in Neah Bay. There is no other way in, and nothing further out.
Cape Flattery the northwest tip of the lower 48, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Cape Flattery is the northwesternmost point of the lower 48, on the Makah Indian Reservation at the head of the Olympic Peninsula. The cape forms the southern lip of the Strait of Juan de Fuca where it meets the open Pacific. From the trailhead a path of roughly three-quarters of a mile, much of it cedar boardwalk, drops through old-growth coastal rainforest to four wooden viewing platforms above the sea caves. Tatoosh Island lies offshore. Vancouver Island sits across the strait. The whole peninsula north of U.S. 101 is part of either the Makah Reservation or Olympic National Park.
Air this far west and this far north comes off the open Pacific with nothing to soften it. Annual rainfall at Neah Bay averages around 100 inches; fog is common through the summer when interior heat draws marine air inland. The cape is one of the windiest stretches of the Washington coast, since the strait acts as a funnel, especially in winter. In summer the coastal cedar gives off a resin scent on the boardwalk that you carry back to the car. Bald eagles are common on the headlands; pelagic seabirds work the offshore waters when the swell is up.
This is the end of the road in the contiguous United States; there is no town further west, no further pull-off, no further trail. Neah Bay, with a population around 800, is the only settlement on the peninsula west of Sekiu. The Makah have lived on this coast for thousands of years; the Ozette site, uncovered in the 1970s, preserved a complete coastal village under a mudslide around 1750. The platforms hold only a handful of visitors most weekday afternoons, even in summer. The sound is the swell working the sea caves below the cliffs and the wind in the spruce.