Makah tribe, Neah Bay welcome visitors to northwest tip of Washinton's Olympic ...

Seeing eight bald eagles at one time from a motel window on Washington's Olympic Peninsula seems pretty special.

Until the guy who runs the place tells his story.

"We watched two eagles fight to the death," says Gordon Bentler of the Cape Motel at Neah Bay. "They locked talons, then tumbled around on the beach flapping their wings. One finally got an advantage, reached its beak to the other's throat and that was it.

"It was gruesome, but it was nature in action."

Not everything is so stark here in the land of the Makah , the first Northwest native tribe to have contact with European sailing ships in the late 1700s.

Misty clouds hang over the Sitka spruce forest. A gentle rain always seems to be falling. Both mute the stark edges of the rugged landscape, where forests grow in an impenetrable mat, mud blankets the understory, cliffs drop straight to the Pacific and waves crash onto sandy beaches.

Unlike some other tribes, the Makah are fortunate to inhabit their ancestral home, at Washington's northwest tip, where the Strait of Juan de Fuca blends its waters with the open ocean.

A warm welcome

The Makah are a warm, inviting people, eager to share their special place on Earth with visitors from outside.

The ancestral Makah found that it was easiest to get around on the water, so their culture depended on ocean-going canoes carved out of cedar trees. They continue the tradition to this day, though, of course, they have modern roads and drive pickups like other peninsula residents.

When I arrived for a recent visit, the village of Neah Bay (population 1,000) buzzed with activity as tribes from around the Northwest gathered at the beginning of their annual Canoe Journey. Among the last to arrive was the Warm Springs canoe from Oregon.

After 400 shared dinner, they sang and danced at the community center, then crawled into rain-soaked tents on the beach for a few hours of sleep. A dozen canoes left town early the next morning bound for La Conner, a 10-day paddle to the east, and Neah Bay returned to its usual quiet self.

Greg Colfax stayed behind to do what he usually does: carve a totem pole in his front yard, in full view of passers-by on Neah Bay's only busy street, Bayview Avenue.

A master carver, Colfax has a 70-foot totem on the Capitol Grounds in Olympia.

1 for 1 Kayak Tarpon - East Cape Skiffs

What a morning! Myself and my wife paddled out early this morning,and after seeing a couple baby tarpon roll and no hook ups we made a move to a oyster bar to at least catch some ladyfish and some trout. well after one 12 in. trout, two casts later on my mirrolure top dog, i hook upped again and said to my wife this one is nicer, i guess so, after about 5 seconds my nicer fish goes airborne and jumps 3 or 4 more times, and i get my anchor back in the yak and it's off to the races! My wife followed me around for about 45 minutes or so tryin g to get pictures, she did a great job. She tied my kayak around her waist and towed me and the spent tarpon back into the shallows where i jumped out , removed the lure, got a few pics snapped and revived the tarpon and it swam away to come visit another angler and make some more great memories! God is good! I estimate the fish to be 60-100 lbs. I'm trying to download the picture but my file is too large. Don't know how to change the size. Can anybody tell me how to do it?

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