The first time I backpacked the Ozette Loop was a family trip when I was 12 years old. It left a lasting impression on me, because here I am in my 30s, and now that I’ve started hiking and backpacking on my own I’ve made 3 more trips here.
This is a great beginner backpacking trip. Each section is only 3 miles. The forest sections are either boardwalk or well established trail, and the beach section gives a bit of challenge.
For this trip, our first leg was the Ozette trailhead to Cape Alava. We started around 11am (no issues getting parking) and it took us about 2 hours. When you arrive at Cape Alava, go to the right/to the north and cross the small bridge to find the campsites. The bridge goes over the stream, which is the water source here. We packed in plenty of water after reading recent trip reports, but we found the creek was flowing enough that we were able to filter the water we needed (but still not a ton of water flowing). There are plenty of campsites here, just keep going down the trail. At one point the trail takes you back out onto the beach, but if you keep north there are even more sites. Cape Alava has a much needed new outhouse. The crows here are intense and know when you have food out so don’t leave anything unattended. They will swoop before you know it! From the beach we saw whales spouting way off in the water, heard lots of seals barking, and also saw a sea otter swimming around close to shore.
Day 2 we hiked from Cape Alava down to Sand Point. The high tide was around 10am so we didn’t leave until a little after that. The beach hike is maybe more challenging than you might anticipate. What you’re walking on changes frequently - from soft sand, loose rocks, hard rock, boulders, seaweed, or hard sand. This day took us close to 3 hours. The sun was shining bright with no clouds which made every shady spot a nice relief. Look for the petroglyphs around Wedding Rocks - this time we were able to find about 4 more than we’d found before looking on the north side of Wedding Rocks.
We arrived to Sand Point a little after 1:30 and while it seemed busy, we didn’t have any issues finding a decent site. There was water in the creek, but again not tons of flow. Between the water we were already carrying and what we were able to filter, we had enough. We had a way too friendly chipmunk in out campsite that seemed conditioned to food - it was not afraid to get close to us or our stuff. There used to be 2 outhouses at Sand Point, but it seems one was rebuilt and the other was knocked down/no longer exists. Unfortunately this means the 1 outhouse is busier and farther away from a good chunk of campsites.
Day 3 we hiked back out. I find the Sand Point trail a little more mellow than the trail to Cape Alava (a little less ups and downs for Sand Point). Lots of people hiking out to the ocean given that it was a Saturday. Nothing remarkable about the hike out. Despite what we read in recent reports, we did not see any bears!
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