For our third day in Olympic National Park we headed for the ocean. Staying near Forks, WA meant we were only 20 minutes from Rialto Beach where we planned to hike north along the coast through Hole-in-the-Wall and possibly as far as Cape Johnson. For the hikes along the coast we needed to consider the tides. Many portions of the coastline are only passible within a couple hours of low tide. There are bypass routes through the forest, but those routes are often muddy, steep and rough. Fortunately for us low tide was at 8:26am meaning it coincided with our typical early morning start.
We arrived at the Rialto Beach Trailhead around 5:45am.
We headed out to the beach and turned north.
James and Little James Islands
The beach was mostly small pebbles to start. Our steps often sunk more than expecting requiring more effort than we’d have guessed. We spent quite a bit of time trying to find the most solid ground.
Our footsteps on the beach.
Stump in the sand.
Ellen Creek. The creek flowed under the beach and emerged shortly before the ocean.
Seagull
Bald eagle
The Olympic Coast is known for its rock formations, some of which were on display here.
A little over 1.5-miles from the trailhead we arrived at Hole-in-the-Wall.
The tide was low enough we were able to pass through the arch.
Looking back through the arch.
There are some nice tide pools around Hole-in-the-Wall.
This racoon was searching the tide pools for breakfast.
Looking back toward Hole-in-the-Wall.
The hiking became more difficult on the far side of Hole-in-the-Wall due to the rockiness. Some of the rocks were very slick and other sections were large and awkward to scramble over. There were also hundreds of small crabs to avoid.
Many of the dark spots on these rocks are the small crabs.
Does anyone know what this is?
Oyster catcher
Cormorants
Cape Johnson in the distance.
Paintbrush
Unnamed creek not quite making it to the ocean above ground.
Due to the difficult footing we weren’t making great time. We decided that I would go ahead since I am a little more comfortable hiking on rocks and try to make it Cape Johnson. We also agreed to turn around before low tide at 8:26am to ensure that we gave ourselves enough time to get back before the tide was too high to stick to the beach.
Cape Johnson
I rounded a small point at 7:50am and saw that to reach Cape Johnson I’d have to bow in a lot further than I’d anticipated.
My legs were already tired and I didn’t think I could continue to maintain the faster pace needed to reach Cape Johnson and get back to the trailhead, so I continued until 8am then turned around.
I turned around at the slide ahead.
Hermit crab shells
A good example of the challenging terrain.
Seagull, oyster catchers, and a cormorant.
Paintbrush on the cliffs above the beach.
Hole-in-the-Wall and James Island back in view.
I had been scanning the ocean all morning looking for anything that might be an animal and took a number of pictures of things that turned out to be nothing. At one point I thought I spotted something floating near the rocks but wasn’t sure if it was just another rock. I took some zoomed in photos and think I may have stumbled on a sea otter.
Not a great picture due to the extreme zoom and low lighting. After looking closer at this photo I began thinking it was just a rock in the surf. Then I looked at the next photo and what would be the foot and the head were in different positions.
Possible sea otter.
The area around Hole-in-the-Wall was a lot busier on the way back.
Driftwood on the beach.
Heather spotted this little starfish while exploring the tide pools near the arch.
Heather also spotted this which we believe is a velella velella.
Starfish and anemones
Bald eagels
I eventually caught up to Heather on the far side of Hole-in-the-Wall and we continued south on the beach to the jetty along the Quillayute River.
On the jetty looking at James Island.
La Push across the river.
Sea lion in the river.
Heading back to the trailhead along the jetty.
The jetty is actually part of the Quileute Indian Reservation.
I managed to get 7.9-miles in here.
This was the most challenging hike of the week due to the rocks, but it was scenic with lots of wildlife too. Our next hike also included some beach hiking, but only about 3 miles so hopefully it wouldn’t be quite as tiring. Happy Trails!
Flickr: Rialto Beach
wanderingyuncks 