Information about this hike provided in partnership with
Mountaineers Books.
Copyright © Craig Romano/The Mountaineers Books Third Beach
Featured In:
Day Hiking: Olympic Peninsula,
by Craig Romano.
A portion of all book sales from the links above benefits WTA and helps protect and maintain our trails. An easy hike to one of the Olympic Coast's famed wilderness beaches. Walk the wide sandy beach to the foot of a waterfall tumbling from a towering bluff right into the crashing surf. Feeling more energetic? Leave the crowds behind by grunting over Taylor Point to a secluded beach flanked by steep sea stacks and flower pot islands.
Driving Directions:
From Port Angeles follow US 101 west for 55 miles to the junction with State Route 110 (signed "Mora-La Push"). (From Forks the junction is 2 miles north.) Continue west on SR 110. In 7.7 miles at Quillayute Prairie, SR 110 splits. Take the left fork (La Push Road) and proceed 3.8 miles to the trailhead, located on the south side of the road. Privy available. Recent Trip Reports
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Multi-night backpack
Issues:
Blowdowns | Mud/Rockslide | Mudholes
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Two nights south of Third Beach in Olympic National Park, with a day hike from Toleak Point to Goodman Falls
When...
Two nights south of Third Beach in Olympic National Park, with a day hike from Toleak Point to Goodman Falls
When snow up high prevents access to mountain trailheads, what to do?! Go hike the beach! Tim and I planned this weekend trip back in January, and this weekend’s sunny weather cooperated. We stayed Friday night at Scott Creek and Saturday night at Toleak Point. We encountered one pair of campers at Scott Creek, saw one site occupied at Strawberry Point, and found several campsites occupied at Toleak. The only difficult water crossing was Scott Creek. It ran fairly deep all the way to the ocean. Depending on how high and wide it is running, you may be able to cross carefully on a driftwood tangle closer to the woods. The entire trail was passable, but quite muddy in several spots along the overland sections. We found all the ropes in place, but on the Third Beach end of the overland trail across Taylor Point, the trail marker sign was missing. Instead, it was marked with orange forestry tape. Also, because of a muddy landslide, the north end of the overland trail leading to Scott Creek was difficult due to soft, deep mud. You may want to try to choose a route along the rope that has firm dirt, or you may lose a boot to the muck! A pair of bald eagles hunted over the ocean in view of our Toleak camp site, or perched above us in the tree tops. We talked with campers who had seen an otter on the rocks at low tide. And of course, raccoons abound, and they seem to love hunting in the tide pools that form at low tide. The sea stacks make for majestic scenery along this entire stretch and help add character and interest to already stunning sunrises, sunsets, and moonsets. Goodman Falls was beautiful.
Third Beach
— Nov 05, 2011
— justpeachy
Day hike
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It was very chilly, but thankfully there was no rain. We had a nice walk through the forest down to...
It was very chilly, but thankfully there was no rain. We had a nice walk through the forest down to the beach and then a nice walk south along the beach until we couldn't walk any further. A gorgeous spot and not too hard a hike!
Overnight
Issues:
Mudholes | Water on trail
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This was a fairly important hike to me. Whilst commuting by bicycle back in February, a nice Doberman Pinscher...
This was a fairly important hike to me. Whilst commuting by bicycle back in February, a nice Doberman Pinscher came along and sunk it's teeth into my leg. This lead to some health troubles and a long road to recovery.
After all this, I've slowly been working to get back into shape, get muscle tone back, etc. Last week, in another milestone hike, I hiked Dirtyface, showing that I could once again undertake a challenging hike. This hike, to Toleak Point, was my return to carrying a big overnight pack. With almost every high-country destination still snowed in, the choise of destination was pretty straightforward. Judging from the line at the WIC in Port Angeles, everybody else thought so too. Oh well. True to the nature of the REALLY wet side of the mountains, I approach the trailhead under a light misting rain. This had stopped by the time I hit the trail, and most of my hike was under cool, cloudy skies. The overland trails had a couple of man-eating mudholes, but at least all the ropes and ladders were in place. And, of course, hiking on the beach was sublime. I reached Toleak Point, set up came, and watched the sun finally burn through. I spent severall idyllic hours roaming the beach before bedtime. Morning again brought a nice cloud layer and delightful hiking conditions. It'd almost feel wrong to hike the Washington coast under sunshine. Clouds, rain, yes. But sunny skies would almost diminish the experience. ;-) After returning to the car, I made the quick drive to Rialto Beach, and did a short jaunt to hole-in-the-wall for lunch. Sooooooo nice!
Third Beach
— Jul 09, 2011
— TripleHHikers
Day hike
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Third beach is an easy 1.4 mile hike down. Good parking--it's on a main road and there are signs...
Third beach is an easy 1.4 mile hike down. Good parking--it's on a main road and there are signs that there have been lots of theft but we had no problem with that...although there isn't much valuable in our truck anyway. You'll find a few campers there and we even had a deer join us for a walk down the beach. See our review on our blog for pictures!
http://triplehhikers.blogspot.com/2011/07/third-beach.html Multi-night backpack
Features:
Wildflowers blooming | Ripe berries
Issues:
Mudholes
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The weather was beautiful throughout the weekend. We drove in from Seattle on July 8th late in the evening and...
The weather was beautiful throughout the weekend. We drove in from Seattle on July 8th late in the evening and camped the first night at Mora campground. The next day early morning we picked up our camp and we hiked to Rialto beach and Hole in wall, while we waited for low tide. At around 1pm we started our hike at the Third beach trailhead heading to Toleak point. Even though the parking lot was packed, we pretty much had the trail to ourselves. The trails were in great shape. So were the ropes and ladders. We made it to Strawberry Point and decided to camp there because a lot of hikers were heading out to Toleak Point. Good thing we did, cause we had the beach all to ourselves!!! Amazing!. The only thing is that at night when the high tide came in (it was predicted to be an 8.4) it got very close to our tents, within 4 feet, we did not expect this so we were not very sure what was going to happen. Luckily, the sea settled down and we were fine on our spots. The next day, we broke camp and backpacked out.
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Photo by Slugman.
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