Stunningly beautiful and mercifully free of crowds (this time of year in the spring), Ruby Beach is excellent for exploring tide pools and beach life. It's a great place to sit and stare as well, reflecting on the beauty of the area. It's not a real "trail hike", unless you walk on the beach (which you can do for miles). NOTE: The Cedar Creek, which feed into the sea, is a full blast right now in spring, so if you want to cross to the North and explore the big sea stacks, be prepared to ford the creek - meaning: you will get wet. It's about three feet deep right now (4/2013) and flowing hard. If you don't cross it, you can't explore some of the most beautiful sea stacks in the area.

I was planning on hiking from Ruby Beach up to the mouth of the Hoh River, but the Cedar Creek was raging, even at at a low tide, so we weren’t able to cross. We ended up spending time exploring Ruby Beach on this visit.

On the first week of April, twelve hardy WTA volunteers decided that an early week long volunteer vacation on the Washington Coast would be a good idea! Well...it was. The Kalaloch section of ONP boasts many trails. Ushering hikers to beaches with magic views and intimate natural experiences. Like do oystercatchers really catch oysters? And if so who tosses them? We were delighted to be put to work repairing many tread issues that of course mostly centered around the determination of water. We began at Ruby Beach one of the most popular, because it's the first beach access you come to after leaving Forks. Ruby Beach trail is a short distance to the beach. The trail is is great shape with a new turnpike and replaced step section. Several areas of drainage were established. An easy hike for the whole family and well worth your first stop as you work your way south. The next stop is Beach Four, another short distance to the beach. New steps make the short trek down easy for all hikers. Cleaned out ditches have diverted water away from the trail and the tread is now dry. A wonderful bridge partly fashioned out of drift wood makes the trip down this trail worthwhile. Beach Three is only marked with a trailhead marker and is therefore more difficult to find. But guess what? It is between Beach Two and Beach Four. Newly installed steps have made this short trek down to the beach a treat. Then just north of the Kalaloch Campground is the Alley Way Trail a very short hop, skip and jump to the beach. A new step, drainage and stablization of the bank allows easy access to a flat beautiful beach. The South end of the campground you will find the Cannery Trail. A half mile path through large Spuce and Cedar to a beach heavily strewn with beach logs. We replaced 70 feet of puncheon with turnpike approaches allowing hikers to avoid the rather deep swampy bottom just before the beach. Across from the Campground and Highway is the Nature Loop Trail. It meanders in a mile loop through old growth, Salmon Berry and the early spring profusion of Skunk Cabbage. Our crew was able to replace safety fencing at an overlook and replace several of the rotten planks from old puncheon. (To be replaced next year) This trail can be used by the whole family. We enjoyed the songs of the Varied Thrushes, many Robins and the ratatat of the piliated woodpecker. There are several other trails around and near the Kalaloch area that would be exciting to explore. We are pleased to report that there are minimal trail issues on the trails we were able to work. Each trail has its own features: tide pools, the varied formations of beach wood, and the most interesting rock creations formed from the relationship of shelled creatures and rock. If it's been awhile since your last trip to the beach consider packing up the car and heading west. Check the ONP website for Kalaloch and any other information you may want or need.

Only nice day for a week, time to hit the coast for a sunny winter day at the beach. Temps were in the 30's driving into the area, there was a trace of snow high in the hills above Lake Quinault where I stopped to stretch my legs. I stopped at 4th beach first and then on to Ruby where the sun was blazing for a solid hour. It was so warm and only saw about 5 people and 1 dog. The light kept changing by the minute, the tide pools were out, I only got soaked once capturing the star fish. This beach has it all from sea stacks, log piles, tide pools, beautiful waves, sunny skies, not a thing to complain about in the world! I can't believe I've lived in WA all my life and only just discovered these beaches in the last couple of years! If you haven't been, go now! It's WAY less crowded than summer and just as enjoyable, just bring your gloves and warm hat just in case. As I found out in 2 hours it weather changed quickly by the time I was on to Kalaloch it was cloudy, cold and windy. But still beautiful!

Ruby Beach and Kalaloch A three-day weekend was upon us and we wanted to explore a place that would be new for both of us. We had spent time on the Olympic Peninsula but neither of us had ever been to Kalaloch and the surrounding beaches. What a treat! We started with an afternoon hike from Kalaloch Lodge south. The weather forecast called for snow and it was cold, stormy and wet. We hiked with the wind behind us along the beach for about 1 ½ hours until it started snowing. We stopped for a snack of crackers and smoked muscles, hiding behind a huge piece of drift-wood to protect us from the blowing wind. By the time we returned to the lodge, we were cold and wet but thrilled by the blowing snow and dramatic waves. It snowed most of the night and we awakened to a winter wonderland. We rose at dark in order to explore the beach before sunrise. We were the only ones out and the silence of the snow was magical. Coffee in hand, we retraced our steps from the afternoon before and the beach was transformed into a white blanket of snow. Then to our amazement, the sun rose, the clouds parted, and the sun shown. By the time we returned for a late breakfast, we ran into a fellow hiker who had visited Kalaloch every year at this time for fifty years. She had never seen snow and when we told her it was our first time there, she recommended we run out and buy a lottery ticket! Our next adventure of the day was Ruby Beach. By now the sun was brilliant and the tide was at its lowest low of the day. We walked two hours south from Ruby Beach around two large heads to what we think was Beach 4. Jared had a great time taking photos while I scrambled on some of the large rocks that jutted out of the sand. Destruction Island looked destructive indeed. When we returned to Ruby Beach, Jared took advantage of the windless afternoon to skip rocks in the lagoon. We wanted to explore the Hoh River trail where WTA had done a lot of work, but we talked to folks that had driven the valley the day before and they said they could not get close to the trailhead due to snow. So instead, we stopped to enjoy the Big Cedar Tree before returning home. This is a perfect place for family adventures and I look forward to returning soon.