Rialto Beach and Hole-in-the-Wall — Thursday, Apr. 17, 2025

Bottom Line:

Turning a corner on "snow" hikes like Mt St Helens a week ago, a beautiful morning exploring Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park. Early, there were a couple other cars in the lot with folks trying to capture low tide at "Hole in the Wall" (slightly negative tide was more the sufficient to explore the arch and surrounding tide pools). The beach is cast in shade early with only the frothing surf lit up, and eventually filtered light started peeking through the huge trees and mist - very pretty! Relatively steep black sand and pebble beach with dinosaur-bone-sized semi-buried driftwood, towering trees, pounding surf that would not be out of place in Hawaii (and the sound of peddles being raked by the surf), and lots of interesting beach features, from sea stacks to tide pools. Arriving early one can get "fresh tracks" in the twinkling sand (quartz?). Later, it got pretty busy and the spell was somewhat broken :)

Stats:

• Distance: 5-1/4 miles with exploration
• Duration: ~ 3 hours
• Road/Parking: You enter Olympic National Park at Mora, at the west end of 110S from Forks. There is no manned gate, but you will need to display a National Park Pass when parking in the large lot. Toilets and maps. No evidence of any break-in activity/issues.
• Weather: sunny, 50Fs, like wind, surprisingly big surf (see video)
• Water: There is fresh water flowing down the beach in a couple spots for filtering; I did not carry water.
• Trail: Basically, a straight shot down the beach. There are some creeks flowing down the beach, many of which surface suddenly in the sand like springs. One creek in particular has high water - gum boots or waterproof hiking boots recommended. The hard sand that is easiest for walking was down near the surf line; be careful of sneaker waves! The tide pools are fun to explore, with lots of bright green anemones, pink coralline algae, and some purple and orange starfish (still recovering from the wasting disease that wiped them out all along the west coast). CAUTION: The rock is slippery and very sharp in spots; tread carefully off the sand. Consult tide tables to ensure access to Hole-in-the-Wall - suggest a negative low tide to explore the area. There is the possibility of getting stuck on the beach north of this feature by rising tides.
• Takeaway: A truly spectacular beach, probably my favorite on the Washington west coast. Morning is a beautiful time for soft light, but of the course sunset would also be really beautiful - next time. Right now, the low tide of the day is in the morning.

Sorry about the unsightly sky banding; this is what happens when pics with a lot of detail are compressed to enable upload here. I will try to post a video, which will include higher definition pics, later today :)

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.instagram.com/wta_alpinewanderer/
• https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/noaatidepredictions.html?id=9442396