Inge Johnnson's photo of Point of Arches took 2nd prize in WTA's Northwest Expsoure Photo Contest in 2008.

Revered through the ages, Shi Shi Beach has its share of disciples, from First Peoples to first-time visitors, naturalists, bird-watchers, hard-core hikers, beach bums, conservationists, politicians, and just plain ordinary folk. And Northwest hikers have consistently rated Shi Shi as one of the region's most beautiful beaches. Though this natural gem's history has had a few blemishes, including access issues, thankfully many of those problems have been washed out to sea.

One of the last additions to Olympic National Park, Shi Shi Beach's inclusion in 1976 was met with a fair amount of resistance. Abutting landowners had to be convinced to allow public access. Land developers had to be discouraged from turning the area into an enclave of second homes. And once the Park Service acquired title, they had to remove counterculture squatters and tidy up the mess left behind. Even then the fight to secure Shi Shi for the public wasn't over; in the late 1990s the trail was closed in a land-access dispute. But after much wrangling and negotiating, the Park Service and landowners broke the impasse. The Makahs developed a new trailhead and built a new trail to the beach, and it's top-notch in both design and standards.

The first mile winds through pockets of mature Sitka spruce, traversing rain-saturated bogs via cedar-planked boardwalks and bridges. The new trail then intersects part of the old trail, where 0.5 mile of somewhat muddy terrain must still be negotiated. Eventually this part of the trail will be rehabilitated. At 1.75 miles you'll reach the national park boundary. Now, the only thing separating you from the spectacular beach is a steep trail down a 150-foot bluff.

Brace your knees and emerge at the northern end of the 2-mile sandy beach. Taste the salty air. Feel the pounding surf at your feet. Embrace the raw beauty of this wilderness beach and immediately forget about the civilized world. Dunes and bluffs hem the sandy shoreline. Giant logs dance in the thundering breakers. Eagles belt out high-pitched welcomes from overhanging snags.

In 1.3 miles from the bluff descent you'll come to Petroleum Creek. Cross it and continue. Point of the Arches, a mile-long cavalcade of sea stacks and natural arches, comes into better view. It's 1 mile farther to reach them. During a low tide, there's no better place on the Olympic Coast for admiring these wind- and water-sculpted landforms. The only thing grander than Shi Shi's natural beauty is its resilience in the face of forces that would have prohibited us from enjoying and admiring this national treasure.