Cape Alava

Cape Alava, in Clallam County, Washington, U.S., is the westernmost point in the contiguous 48 states, with a longitude of 124° 44′ 11.8″ W (during low tide and walking out to the west side of Tskawahyah Island). The westernmost point is located in Olympic National Park and the Makah Indian Reservation. Cape Alava is accessible via a 3-mile (5 km) boardwalk hike from a ranger station in the park. Cape Alava Trail was designated a National Recreation Trail in 1981.

Nearby Cape Flattery and Cape Blanco in southern Oregon are also very close longitudinally to being the westernmost points in the contiguous 48 states.

The cape was named after the Spaniard Don José Manuel de Álava (born in Vitoria, January 1, 1743) for his role as commissioner during the solution of the conflict of Nootka in 1794.

In early 1834, a Japanese ship, the Hojun Maru, made landfall at Cape Alava after a 14-month drift on the Pacific Ocean. It was supposed to bring rice to Edo, but was then carried away by a storm. At the time of arrival near Cape Alava, only three of its crew were alive (the youngest being Otokichi). They were then looked after and briefly enslaved by Makah.

The Cape became the western terminus of the newly created Pacific Northwest Trail with the passage of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009.

The beaches surrounding the trail terminus are composed of a variety of different rock types and formations.

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Wikipedia