Washington’s strangest beach town has a mummified alligator man and 28 miles of drivable sand

Long Beach Peninsula’s wild side

You can drive on the beach here. That’s the first thing people tell you about Long Beach, Washington, and it’s true, though you’ll want to keep it under 25 mph on the hard-packed sand.

This small town sits on a 28-mile strip of Pacific coastline in the state’s southwestern corner, about three hours from Seattle and two and a half from Portland. Steady wind, crashing surf and wide-open sand set the tone.

But the kites, the clams and one very strange mummified creature are what keep people coming back.

The Chinook fished here long before the Clamshell Railroad

The Long Beach Peninsula is the traditional homeland of the Chinook people, who lived and fished along these shores long before European contact.

Captain William Clark explored the coastline in November 1805 during the Lewis and Clark expedition.

By the mid-1800s, traders came looking for berries, scarce and valuable as a source of Vitamin C, and bartered with the Chinook.

Later that century, visitors started arriving by steamship and a small rail line called the Clamshell Railroad, which ran on schedules tied to the tides.

1,500 kites from 26 countries fill one converted cottage

Long Beach picks up reliable coastal winds off the Pacific, and that makes it one of the best kite-flying spots on the West Coast.

The World Kite Museum opened in 1990 in a converted beach cottage and now holds more than 1,500 kites from 26 countries. You’ll find war kites, miniature kites and massive Japanese fighting kites inside.

The museum also lets you build your own kite and fly it on the beach just a block away. It’s the only museum in the country dedicated solely to kites.

Every August, the sky turns into a competition

The third full week of August, the Washington State International Kite Festival takes over the Long Beach shoreline.

Tens of thousands of spectators and kite fliers show up from around the world for a full week of events.

You can watch sport kite battles, synchronized team flying, kite fighting and kite-making contests judged on artistry and flight.

The City of Long Beach founded the festival in 1981, and the World Kite Museum runs it now. Watching is free from the beach, and plenty of visitors bring their own kites to join in.

A half-human, half-alligator mummy behind the gift shop

Marsh’s Free Museum on Pacific Avenue has been collecting oddities since 1921.

During the Great Depression, bar patrons would bring in unusual items to settle their tabs, and the Marsh family kept every one.

The star of the collection is Jake the Alligator Man, a mummified figure that looks half human and half alligator, acquired for $750 in the 1960s.

You’ll also find a two-headed calf, vintage arcade machines, America’s largest collection of glass fishing floats and a taxidermy collection. Four generations of Marshes have run the place.

Admission is free.

Two lighthouses guard the Graveyard of the Pacific

Cape Disappointment State Park sits at the peninsula’s southern tip, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific.

British fur trader John Meares named the cape in 1788 after he mistakenly thought the river’s mouth was only a bay.

The Cape Disappointment Lighthouse first lit on Oct. 15, 1856, making it the oldest functioning lighthouse on the West Coast.

Ships coming from the north couldn’t see that light, so a second one, North Head Lighthouse, went up in 1898.

Dangerous currents and shifting sandbars here have claimed so many ships that the area earned the name Graveyard of the Pacific.

A Fresnel lens and Civil War bunkers on the bluff

Inside Cape Disappointment State Park, the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center sits on a high bluff above the Pacific.

Exhibits cover the Corps of Discovery expedition, local Chinook history and the maritime story of the Columbia River. A first-order Fresnel lens that once lit the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse is on display inside.

The park also holds remains of Fort Canby, a military installation armed during the Civil War and active through World War II.

You can walk through old concrete bunkers and battery remains from the coastal defense system.

Walk 8.5 miles past a bronze sturgeon and a whale skeleton

The Discovery Trail runs 8.5 miles on a paved path from Long Beach to the port town of Ilwaco through dunes, coastal forest and wetlands.

Named after the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery, the trail passes bronze sculptures and interpretive panels along the way.

You’ll see a bronze replica of a tree where William Clark carved his name, a basalt monolith, a bronze sturgeon sculpture and a gray whale skeleton.

At Beard’s Hollow, a boardwalk crosses marshland with views of the surrounding coast. The trail is mostly flat and paved, so it works for hikers and cyclists of all levels.

The boardwalk got a $2.5 million facelift

The Long Beach Boardwalk is a wooden walkway through the dunes in downtown Long Beach, with views of the Pacific on the other side.

Residents built it after a 1970s dip in tourism, and it drew visitors for about 35 years before the North Pacific weather took its toll.

A major renovation kicked off in July 2025, replacing all decking, railings and lighting, funded in part by a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

If you’re planning a visit, check with the city or local tourism sites for the latest status on the project.

Dig 15 razor clams before breakfast, then shuck oysters by lunch

Razor clam digging runs deep on the Long Beach Peninsula.

The season goes from October through April, but you can only dig on specific dates approved by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife after marine toxin testing.

If you’re 16 or older, you need a valid fishing license, and the daily limit is 15 clams per person. On the east side of the peninsula, Willapa Bay is one of Washington’s top oyster-producing areas.

The Nahcotta Tidelands are open year-round for public oyster harvesting with a shellfish license. Many visitors dig clams on the ocean beach in the morning and harvest oysters on the bay side the same afternoon.

Trumpeter swans winter here alongside 200 bird species

Guided horseback rides run along the beach at sunset, and families can book outings along the shoreline.

At the peninsula’s far north end, Leadbetter Point State Park draws birdwatchers with more than 200 species recorded along the Pacific Flyway.

The Martha Jordan Birding Trail passes through Hines Marsh, a wintering ground for trumpeter swans.

Back in town, the Cranberry Museum tells the story of the Washington coast cranberry industry next to test bogs operated by Washington State University. The bogs flood in the fall for harvest, turning the fields red.

You can sample cranberry ice cream at the museum gift shop.

Oysterville lost its courthouse in an 1893 midnight raid

About 15 miles north of Long Beach, the tiny village of Oysterville sits on the shores of Willapa Bay.

Founded in 1854 as an oyster-fishing boomtown, it served as the seat of Pacific County until 1893, when South Bend residents raided the courthouse and seized the county records.

The village landed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and today holds about 15 historic buildings dating as far back as the 1850s.

You can walk among restored Victorian-era homes, a one-room schoolhouse and an 1892 church that stays open daily.

The post office has operated continuously under the same name since 1858, making it the oldest in Washington.

Visit Long Beach, Washington

You can reach Long Beach by car in about three hours from Seattle or two and a half hours from Portland, Ore. The town sits on the Pacific Ocean side of the peninsula in Pacific County, with Willapa Bay on the east side.

Portland International Airport is the closest major airport at about 115 miles, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is about 170 miles away.

A car is the way to go here, since public transit options on the peninsula are limited.

Once you arrive, Pacific Avenue runs through the center of town with local shops, bakeries and seafood spots lining both sides.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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