Rialto Beach and Hole-in-the-Wall — Sunday, Sep. 21, 2003

Olympic Peninsula > Pacific Coast

LA PUSH OCEAN BEACHES I spent 5 days in Sept. staying in an oceanside cabin at the Indian village of La Push and taking easy day hikes on the fabulous surrounding beaches. La Push is on the northwest Pacific ocean coast. North and south of the small reservation the wild pacific beaches are preserved in Olympic National Park for 50 miles. First Beach: a mile of sand in a crescent form with sea stack islands, big surf, with the Quilliute river and La Push village at one end and cliffs of a rocky point at the other. Lots of driftwood. Sandpipers feeding in the surf and herons, gulls, and other birds constantly circling and fishing. Wonderful sunsets. Reservation land. Second Beach: this one is the unsung jewel of the wild beaches. It has two miles of wide sandy beach, a lagoon, many sea stack islands, tide pools, immense heaps of drift wood, and lots of sea life. It is approached via a 3/4 mile forest trail. Beautiful in the sun, beautiful in the fog with very few people. Cliffs of high rocky headlands at each end. Here I watched a Crane fishing in the tide pools and later had a Doe run around me in the edge of the surf. Olympic NP. Third Beach: another wild beach but only one mile long. Wide sandy beach with sea stacks at each end and a waterfall dropping 100 ft. over the south end cliffs into the sea. I saw only one other person at this beach even though it's on the southern Olympic beach backpack route. Approach is on a 1 1/2 mile trail through the forest. A large squadron of Herons were fishing and swooping while I ate lunch. Olympic NP. Rialto Beach: this is the famous one with Hole In The Wall as the star attraction. Wild but with quite a few people, even on my rainy gale force day there were a dozen or so. Rocky at first then sandy. Low tide would have been better. Rugged sea stacks at the north end. Good tide pools especially just past Hole In The Wall. At high tide a short steep, muddy, bypass trail around Hole In The Wall is required. A mile and 1/2 of beach before the rocky northern headland. Spectacular ocean vistas. Fancy trailhead. Olympic NP. Clallam Bay beach: on Friday we drove north to the Strait of Juan De Fuca. Clallam Bay and Sekiu are little towns on each side of the bay. The beach extends in a long curve for about 1 1/2 miles. Has more rocks and less sand, beautiful view of the bay and Vancouver Island. Access is from the county park. Not a wild beach, the town and hiway are right behind. Considering quality and quantity of beach, wildlife , remoteness and solitude here is my ranking: 1. Second 2. Third 3. Rialto 4. First 5. Clallam Bay The photography ranking is different. 1. Second 2. Rialto 3. First 4. Clallam Bay 5. Third Robert Michelson 9/22/03