South Coast Wilderness Trail - Toleak Point, Oil City, Chilean Memorial, North Coast Route, Norwegian Memorial & Rialto Beach and Hole-in-the-Wall — Saturday, May. 24, 2025

TLDR: hiked from Oil City to Norwegian Memorial over Memorial Day weekend and relished the very challenging trail, great wildlife and solid weather before road walking and hitchhiking back to our car

We began our hike at the Oil City trailhead around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday 5/24. The lot was half full and the privy was clean. Oil City Road is about 10.5 miles long from highway 101 and doesn't see a ton of traffic; it's mostly paved with some intermittent gravel. The trail to the beach is short, but muddy.

Itinerary

Day 1: drive to oil city, hike to Third Beach (camp)
Day 2: Hike to road, hitchhike/road walk to Rialto Beach (otherwise you need a boat to cross the Quillayute River), hike to Norwegian Memorial (camp)
Day 3: take spur trail to logging road, road walk to near Quillayute Airport, hitch to Forks, hitch to Oil City, drive home

TIDES

Always bring a tide chart and plan ahead. If the tides are in your favor, try to take the headland option every time. Otherwise, look for overland options, ladders and ropes. We were able to avoid the worst tidal risks with our tide chart and a bit of planning (waking up at 3 a.m. to get around a headland before the tide was too high by 9:30 a.m.)

The only headland area that felt dangerous with tides was Diamond Rock. According to my tide chart, tides were rising to heights of 5 feet when we passed it. Fortunately, my partner and I were able to time the waves to scramble between choke points, but it's not advisable. Waves lapped up to my mid thigh (5'9) and I scraped my calf on some barnacles, but otherwise we made it through safely. This was one of the rare times I've felt imminently in danger while hiking recently.

Tread

Overland trails are brushy and muddy. Ladders and rope sections can be a little dangerous, so always secure 3 points of contact and spot your hiking companions where you can.

Don't let the lack of elevation change confuse you: beach hiking is very arduous. Expect a ton of rock hopping (some hikers we met loved it; most loathed it), uneven/shifting footing and a ton of slippery textures.

Camping

Third Beach was pretty blasted with people. I would like to never camp here again. The privy is located across a kinda brutal driftwood scramble and up a brushy side trail. We arrived much later than the folks who hiked in via Third Beach trail, so we had to settle for a campsite lower on the sand. The tide crept up and we soon realized we were at risk of being washed away at high tide, so we relocated up higher near the forest.

Norwegian Memorial had a ton of really great camping. It's beautiful! The privy here is not as nice as most areas in the park.

Weather

Saturday was sunny with highs in the 60s. Sunday was overcast and windy with highs in the 50s. We got rained on overnight pretty good at Norwegian Camp and a bit more on our hike out.

Wildlife

We saw a beached whale (gray whale I think?) near Mosquito Creek that stank to high heaven. Not sharing images here for decency.

Other sightings were tons of tidepool critters (anemone, sea stars, crabs), a barred owl, garter snake, cool sea birds and more bald eagles than I can count. At one point, a whole gang (pack? pride? parliament?) of harbor seals checked us out from the water.

Hitchhiking

There is a side trail here near Cedar Creek that will bring you to a trailhead in a logging forest owned by Pacific Forest Management. The trailhead had maybe 6 cars, but we knew there wouldn't be anyone as quick as us out of camp, so we walked down the road it for about 8 miles before finally hitching a ride. Thanks Kevin from Camano Island for the hitch!

We were dropped off at the intersection of 101 and Quilayute Road. We walked two miles into Forks, chowed on some vegan Ben and Jerry's, then stuck our thumbs out again. Within 15 minutes, Clint from Oil City (and his dog, Red) gave us a ride all the way to the trailhead parking lot. My partner had to sit on my lap, and we shared the back of the truck with his doc, but it saved us another 10.5 miles of road walking. Thanks, Clint! 

Distance: 45 miles walked (about 29 on trail)
Elevation: About 4k gain/loss