With temperatures reaching the 80s and 90s throughout the rest of the state, the coast was the perfect getaway spot, with cooler temperatures and a light breeze.
If you buy your Makah Recreational Use Permit at the Washburn General Store, I’d recommend paying in cash. We used a credit card to buy the pass there, only to return to civilization a few days later to find that a stop had been put on the card due to fraudulent charges, so we had to cancel it.
Green Trails map #98S (Cape Flattery) needs updating. On the map, the road along Sooes Beach is called Hatchery Rd, but on the GPS it’s Tsoo-Yess Beach Rd. At the end of this road there’s a left turn onto what the GPS calls Hatchery Rd (unnamed on the map). Also, according to the map, the trail head for Shi Shi Beach is located at this left turn. However, once you reach the end of Tsoo-Yess Beach Rd, turn left onto Hatchery Rd and go an additional .1-.2 mi. The trail head is actually on Fish Hatchery Rd, and is well marked.
Since the parking lot at the trail head is only for day use, we parked at “Donna’s” private parking lot on Tsoo-Yess Beach Rd just under a mile from the trail head. There’s a similar private parking lot that’s ½ mi. closer to the trail head, which costs $10 per day, INCLUDING the days you arrive and leave. At $10 per night, Donna’s is the cheaper option. To save on cash, we opted to park there and walk the extra ½ mi. to the trail head.
We camped on the beach above the high tide line, and it was relaxing to fall asleep (and wake up) to the sound of ocean waves. If you camp on the beach, be sure to pitch your tent above the HIGHEST high tide line predicted for that night. Every day one high tide is higher than the other, and during our trip the higher tide was at night. (Is it always that way?)
Since I wore shorts, I wore gaiters to keep the sand out of my boots. They worked like a charm.
Between Point of the Arches and Seafield Creek there are three overland trails crossing the headlands. These trails are a climb, not just a hike. Ropes are provided, but the grade is much steeper than the representative photo Olympic NP provides on their website (http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=187976). Also, there are no fancy parallel logs to step on, as shown in the picture. It was just a dirt trail with some roots and rocks sticking out of the ground. Most of the ropes are frayed nylon, which is rough on the hands. If I’d known, I would’ve brought sturdy gloves with some grip to them, like gardening gloves. Gloves also would’ve been nice when scrambling over sharp (and often barnacle-encrusted) boulders.
Although there were a lot of people day hiking and camping near the trail heads (on Shi Shi Beach and in the Ozette Triangle area), we encountered only two other hikers in the middle (between Point of the Arches and the Ozette River). Keep an eye out for sea otters in this sparsely populated area. We saw five of them here, including a mom with a baby riding on her belly!
Fording the Ozette River was easy at low tide. The current was pretty gentle and the water level came up to my upper shins at the deepest point. The bottom is relatively smooth and sandy, with rounded rocks. We used sandals/water shoes to ford the river as usual, but we also saw a large group of people going barefoot, and they seemed fine. I wouldn’t recommend going without some sort of foot protection, though – you can never be sure exactly what’s down there, and when you’re miles from the nearest trail head, a foot injury could have major consequences.
The Ozette River is the only place along this route where you can find reliable water. Although the Green Trails maps show a few small streams leading down to the beach along the route, we only encountered one of these streams in reality, and it was too small for obtaining water to be feasible. When collecting water from the Ozette River, it’s best to wait until just before low tide. That will minimize the salty flavor of the water.
The Green Trails map indicates that there are two ranger stations along this route – one on Shi Shi Beach, and one at Cape Alava – but they may no longer be in operation. We looked for the station on Shi Shi Beach but never spotted it from the beach, and the one at Cape Alava appeared to be unoccupied and in need of maintenance.
Although Olympic National Park distributes a map of the Sand Point area showing numerous campsites in the woods behind the beach, we were unable to find more than one of these campsites, and the one we found was a group site. We ended up camping on the beach and it looked like everyone else was doing the same. To escape the crowds, we kept heading south from Sand Point and camped just north of the Ericson’s Bay trail head.
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