The main part of the Hoquiam River -- my hometown river and site of probably seventy percent of photography -- is only six miles long. It forms from two tributaries just north of town and flows south to empty in the Grays Harbor estuarine bay.
Unless the tide is coming in from the Pacific. Then it flows 'backwards' and fills up like a bathtub. If you can't see for sure which direction the water is moving, just check out the ripples around the many old dock pilings scattered up and down the river.
If you're in the right place at the right time -- low tide or high tide -- you can actually watch it change direction. So far, I've only seen it once in the seven years I've lived here. There's just this gentle little pause ... and then it's flowing the other way.
In this photo, we're looking to the northwest. That's Beacon Hill rising across the river on the right. The cloud bank in the photo had just moved off the sun -- which tracks pretty close to the southern horizon this time of year -- so I had the sunlight behind me and a nice dark backdrop.
I didn't get the exposure right, of course. I had to turn down the brightness after the fact to get the clouds to show up, so we're missing a little of the golden tone that was there at the time.
Still learning.....