SHI SHI BEACH NORTH ACCESS

Shi Shi Beach 9/22/2004

Hard to get to, but worth it. Shi Shi is the northernmost beach in Olympic Nat. Park. On the south it is accessed by a difficult 10 mile beach backpack route from the Lake Ozette trailhead and on the north via a very, very muddy day hike trail from the Makah reservation. We were staying at very nice accomodations near Neah Bay on the Straits of Juan de Fuca so I got to use the EASY day hike trail access. It was by far the muddiest trail I have ever hiked. Mud holes 100 feet long and 20 feet wide. The tribe has rebuilt the first mile of trail (which is wonderful) but then the liquid dirt begins.

It took me an hour and 20 minutes to get to the first spectacular beach overlook, just before the trail drops like an extreme skiing madman straight down the 200 foot bluff to the beach. It was a cloudy mid week day with mist, drizzle, and then rain as I was leaving. Arriving on the beach I was alone, almost. No other day hikers today but 3 tents (and 8 campers) were hidden in the best spots in the woods just above the hi tide line. In peak season you need a permit and up to 100 campers may be on Shi Shi. It's famous and hard to get to, so people come.

The beach is in the form of a gentle crescent just over 2 miles long. There is a headland peninsula at each end with clusters of sea stacks marching out to sea where the land used to be. Many of these rocky spires have caves and hollows which you can see thru at the proper angles. Some have trees and vegetation growing on top. There are tide pools too.

The trail deposited me near the north end and after admiring the northern sea stack cluster I started south on the broad sandy beach towards the southern cluster , 'Point of Arches'. The tide was receding and the waves were gentle. I walked on the wet low tide sand as near the surf as I dared. Later on one wave fooled me and I got a boot full of ocean. The mist increased and visibility was on and off down to about 1 mile in drizzle. I shielded my camera with my sun/rain hat and took a roll of photos, but the camera couldn't see as well as I did. The eyes and brain correct for conditions. After crossing petroleum creek and noticing the smoke from the campers beach fires I came upon at least a thousand gulls on the beach edge. They didn't want to fly and edged away from me as I came by.

As I got within a mile of Point Of Arches the shapes of the sea stacks started to change with my different angle of sight. Some of the caves disappeared and new ones appeared. Closer still and they all lined up and looked like a single island mountain range. The tide was not very low so I could only walk out to the first stack on the sand. I ate lunch in the shelter of a cedar tree and a giant boulder just off the beach at Point Of Arches. Just beyond the point is another beach in a small cove with more sea stacks to it's south. I decided it was getting too wet to explore any further and turned around. It rained a bit and then drizzled more as I headed north. After spotting the trailhead marker (a big black and orange target) I proceeded just a bit further to the north sea stack group. Climbing over a little headland I looked down into the hidden cove and tide pools on the northern end.

Time to leave Shi Shi and revisit the muddy trail. Even tho the rain increased the puddle size it was easier the second time thru, I knew where the bypasses and escape routes were.

Statistics 8 miles for the day, 200 ft. gain and loss 5 1/2 hours round trip 17 miles from our cozy cabin at Chito Beach Temperature 60 Humidity 100 %

Robert Michelson