Olympic National Park is somewhat unusual in that there are bits and pieces of the park scattered around the Olympic Peninsula. Not only that, but there is such a wide variety of locations. On this day we would explore two different locations. First would be Rialto Beach along the Pacific Ocean. Later we would discover the drama of a temperate rain forest.
To get to these locations it was time to change accommodations so we packed up our car and headed down Highway 101 south. Before getting too far down the road, we stopped again by the highway to catch a few photos of Lake Crescent. Since it was getting dark when we were there the previous day, I made an effort to grab a few more photos in the daylight. My wife commented on how still the water was. It was that mirror like stillness that made the lake very reflective as the photos show.
Past the lake, we enjoyed the colors of autumn. There are quite a few maple trees along the highway, and they added a splash of yellow and occasionally gold as we drove along. I told my wife I think I like autumn best as I like the big bold colors that the season produces.
Our first destination was Rialto Beach. The road to Rialto Beach is just a little north of Forks. It actually indicates La Push on the sign and Highway 110. The road splits after a few mile, and the road to Rialto Beach goes off to the right. It’s a good 15 to 20 minutes to get from Highway 101 over to the beach.
When we arrived at the beach, it was raining fairly hard. We had been lucky so far with the weather and thought perhaps our luck had run out. However, we could see spots of blue sky off in the distance so we sat in the car and waited. Sure enough the rain eventually stopped, and blue sky appeared.
Before the rain stopped completely, we ventured down to the beach. The waves were amazing. My wife called them angry waves. The waves came quickly one after the other, and some were quite high. They were loudly crashing into the beach. There was also a mist hanging over the water due to the rain. It was quite a mysterious and ominous scene. However, those patches of blue sky continued to develop. It was interesting to see blue sky next to a dark, threatening looking cloud in the sky.
The interesting thing about Rialto Beach is the number of sea stacks that are near the beach. A few are all alone out in the water, but there is also a group of them north of the beach entrance. Another site at the beach was called the Hole in the Wall. While I enjoyed taking pictures of the sea stacks, I wanted to see this hole.
The information board at the entrance indicated that the hole was visible 0.6 miles down the beach. That is not a very long distance for us to walk, but this was no ordinary walk. The biggest threat was not the weather which continued to improve. No, the biggest threat was the tide, We were again approaching high tide, and there were section on the beach that would be difficult to get around.
I had to persuade my wife to go, but eventually we set off expecting to take about 30 minutes to get down to the hole. It didn’t happen. The easy part of the beach to walk was generally covered with crashing surf. Above that were very rocky sections and then many logs tossed there by the waves and storms. Some were easy to get around. Others were nearly impossible to find a way over. Nevertheless we persisted. Sometimes we would run around the end of the logs as the tide would momentarily recede. I got caught a few times and got a little wet. Other times we would wend our way through the logs and driftwood toward our goal.
We were getting close. I could see a large sea stack toward the end of the beach, and I thought the hole might be in it. But then we reached a point where we were completely stopped. There was a stream that was flowing into the ocean. Because of the high tide, the stream water backed up creating a depth of probably two feet of water. This was too deep to cross, and there was no way around it. I thought about waiting for the tide to go down, but that could have taken hours so I gave up in defeat.
We turned around and headed back to the entrance. We actually made better time going back since we had figured out a path, and the tide had receded just enough to make it easier in a few place. Despite not reaching our goal, I did capture some amazing photos. I took about 200 photos of the waves.
Before going back to Highway 101, we backtracked from Rialto Beach and went over to La Push. Like Clallam Bay, this was one of those places I had heard about but never seen. Since we were so close, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity and check it out. It sits right on the water with a view of some sea stacks. On one side lies a beach named First Beach. This beach looks south toward more distant sea stacks. There are two more beaches here along the coast that one can hike to. However, as usual, we didn’t have time to stop. La Push also has a marina which I think is mainly for fishing boats. We didn’t stay here long, but the setting was lovely.
I can’t say the same for Forks. Forks seems to have seen better days. There were a number of closed storefronts as we drove through which is always sad to see. We had our early supper at the deli section of the local Thriftway. Trip Advisor rated it the best place to eat in town. That doesn’t say much for the other restaurants.
After eating we headed off to the Hoh Rain Forest. The road to the Ho Rain Forest Visitor Center is 17 miles from Highway 101. This is not a straight road that one can whip down so expect to take at least 30 minutes to arrive at the Visitor Center. Unfortunately for us we had sent more time than we should have at the beach so when we arrived at the visitor center, it was late afternoon. It didn’t leave us much time to check out the trails around the center.
Just about a mile before we arrived at the Visitor Center we encountered a herd of elk on the road. There were about eight elk, and one male had quite a rack on his head. They were right in the road. My wife got out of the car to take pictures. I was somewhat anxious as this was on a curve, and I was afraid someone would come up quickly and not be able to stop. Fortunately that didn’t happen, and we got some photos and moved on.
There are a number of hikes from the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center. Probably the most well know is the Hall of Moss. It’s a loop of about 3/4 of a mile. Because we were short on time, we decided to do this hike. While it wasn’t actually raining during our hike, it had been raining earlier, and everything seemed damp which I guess is appropriate for a rain forest.
The beauty of this hike was the fall colors. I had expected that most of the trees would be evergreen trees. In fact many were deciduous, and there is a grove of tall maple trees that are highlighted during the hike. Yes, there is the moss which hangs down in weird and strange ways, but seeing the moss with the colorful leaves makes it a different experience. I would suggest that fall is the best time to take this hike.
With darkness approaching, we decided we had to return to Highway 101 and get to our accommodations for the night. As we were driving back down to Highway 101, a beautiful light began to fill the sky. It began as a warm yellow glow which eventually turned to orange. I really wanted to get a photo of the sky over the Hoh River which the road was paralleling at times, but there was never a place to turn off. I was disappointed.
After reaching Highway 101 we came to Ruby Beach. The sun had just set and and cast a pale orange glow over the sky. We stopped at a viewpoint and grabbed a few photos. It was not the photo I hoped for, but it was better than nothing.
We were staying in the beach side town of Pacific Beach. This was farther south than I would have liked, but it had been the best I could find. It was about a two hour drive, but we finally arrived around 8:30 tired and ready for a good night’s sleep.
In an earlier blog post about Long Beach, Washington, I said I thought the Oregon beaches were better than the Washington beaches. However, I admitted I had not been to the ones on the peninsula. Having now been to Rialto Beach, I think I spoke too quickly. There are still a number of beaches I need to explore along the Washington coast, but I really enjoyed Rialto Beach. Do you have a favorite beach either in Washington or Oregon? Share your thoughts in the comment section below about where the best beaches are. I’d love to read your opinions.