"What is this thing doing right here?" – Washington hikers come across a giant octopus casually swimming just off the trail

Big orange octopus swimming near the reef in ocean
Giant Pacific octopuses typically live in dens and hunt nocturnally (Image credit: Volodymyr Ivanenko)

Usually when we write about wildlife encounters on the trail, we're covering stories of bear attacks or defensive moose, but a group of Washington hikers recently got the surprise of their lives when they came across a giant octopus just off the trail.

"What is this thing doing right here?" asks Micah Moehller,in a video he shared to Reddit, which you can view below.

Moehller reveals he was hiking Clark's Point, a coastal hike in a wooded peninsula in Bellingham when he came across the extraordinary scene of a Giant Pacific octopus swimming in a shallow tide pool.

Different angle of the octopus I saw in bellingham bay! from r/Bellingham

Moehller says there are train tracks nearby that separate the ocean from the pool and he thinks the octopus must have swum through a pipe that runs underneath the tracks to reach this inland area.

According to the Seattle Aquarium, Giant Pacific octopuses can weigh from 40 to 100lb (that's 18 - 45kg) and grow up to 14 feet long. They live in dens and do most of their hunting at night, so a sighting like this is extremely rare and another great example of why it's always worth getting out on a hike – you truly never know what you might see.

If you do come across any amazing creatures on the trail, follow the example of these hikers and stay back, admiring it from afar. Check out our guide to wildlife safety for more tips.


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Julia Clarke

Julia Clarke is a staff writer for Advnture.com and the author of the book Restorative Yoga for Beginners. She loves to explore mountains on foot, bike, skis and belay and then recover on the the yoga mat. Julia graduated with a degree in journalism in 2004 and spent eight years working as a radio presenter in Kansas City, Vermont, Boston and New York City before discovering the joys of the Rocky Mountains. She then detoured west to Colorado and enjoyed 11 years teaching yoga in Vail before returning to her hometown of Glasgow, Scotland in 2020 to focus on family and writing.