After staying the night in Forks, we headed out to First Beach and La Push, both located on the Quileute Reservation. Both of these have scenes that also take place in the Twilight series and Sue wanted to visit them. It turns out that First Beach was another introduction to the gorgeous Northwest coast scenery.
First Beach
At First Beach, it was a bit misty and cool, but not bad–really the only time we had much of a weather issue at all the whole trip. First Beach has plenty of sea stacks, wrapped in mist and low clouds with tons of driftwood. It was amazing to see the huge trees that had been carried by the waves and deposited on the beach.
We are at First Beach on the Quileute Indian Reservation.
First Beach waves
Scott, checking to see how cold the water is.
First Beach Driftwood, except this is a huge uprooted tree.
Rialto Beach
After First Beach we headed back out to highway 101 and headed a bit north to go to Rialto Beach, which is actually part of Olympic National Park. This coastal part of the park is divided into several sections, which are separated by several different tribal reservations. At Rialto Beach we walked north to see the “Hole in the Wall”, a place where the ocean wave have carved a hole through a sea stack that is next to the beach. Along the way, we saw lots of interesting ocean scenery and interesting things on the beach, including more bald eagles! I lost track of how many bald eagles that we saw, but it was a lot. Just like at First Beach, all along the beach is a pile of drift wood, including huge logs. We were told to make sure we weren’t on the logs when the high tide came in, because if you are on them when that happens, you could be seriously injured or die as the logs are tossed around in the surf.
View North along Rialto Beach
There was a small stream that hit the edge of the beach, but then slowly ran under the sand until it emerged here.
Split Rock is within view of Hole in the Wall
Just beyond Split Rock was our destination, Hole in the Wall is a sea-carved arch that is a popular destination along the walk north of Rialto Beach. It’s one of the landmarks along the North Coast Route Trail that goes along the coast here.
After Rialto Beach, we headed back into Forks for the last time, and then on to other Olympic National Park adventures. Our next destination? The Hoh Rain Forest.
Hoh Rain Forest
I think this is what makes Olympic National Park so very unique in all the parks. We had been to the towering snow capped Olympic Mountains. We had been to spectacular beaches on coast. Now we were going to visit a rain forest! Are you serious? It was gorgeous and probably deserves a post of it’s own.
On the way into the rain forest, we drove through a large primeval forest, which included a giant Sitka spruce tree. Compared to the trees we would later see in the Redwoods National Park, this one is a baby. It’s only 270 feet high and 550 years old! It was huge!
We finally got to the Hoh Rain Forest visitors center, just before it closed. We had time to stop in, grab a couple of souvenirs and then head on the famous Hall of Mosses trail, which is right next to the visitors center. While I was waiting for Sue at the visitors center, I noticed a sign that said that the area received around 170 inches of rain a year! Staggering. I think we get 17 inches of rain a year where we live in Utah. No wonder there was so much thick vegetation.
The pictures really don’t do this walk justice. If you are ever in the area, it is absolutely worth your time to head up to this area and take the hike. It’s not that far, very easy, and you will be amazed at what you see.
Among the wonders we saw were nurse logs. Sometimes, after a tree has fallen and started to rot, seeds will embed themselves in the cracks of the log and start to sprout. Over time, bushes and trees will grow up, and roots will sprout out, over log, and down into the ground. The decaying log provides lots of nourishment so the plants flourish–they are being “nursed” by the log. Over time, the log completely decays, leaving this line of trees and bushes with roots surround the hollow area where the log used to be. They kind of looked like mangrove forests in Florida, without the water.
After our visit to the Hoh Rain Forest, we headed back to Highway 101, and headed south. We stopped at Ruby Beach. The walk down to the beach passed by huge patches of wild raspberries. At the beach, there were tons of rocks that people had stacked up as rock cairns. Sue took her turn as well. Like everywhere else along the coast, there were beautiful sea stacks.
Sea Stacks at Ruby Beach
Sue stacking our own rock cairn
We ended up in Aberdeen, Washington, stayed at the Guesthouse Inn and Suites, which was actually pretty nice. We got rested for our exciting adventures the next day.
