Just Beachy

Good morning, my friends. We couldn’t have asked for better weather for our beach hikes yesterday. It was sunny and warm enough to be out without jackets. Some folks were in shorts and flip-flops, and that would have been comfortable too. I’ll tell you about the hikes in a minute. First, let me back up to the day before. We were out to walk around the RV park a little bit. It isn’t a large park, and we can see pretty much the whole thing from our door. On our walk, I spied these pretties growing in someone’s garden.

Also, this painted rock near the laundry room.

Then yesterday morning, I had some time to work on my slow-stitching. This is the first stitching I’ve done since before we left home.

Okay then. Everyone got your hiking boots on? Let’s head on down the dusty trail. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the tsunami evacuation route. If you feel any earthquakes, go that way.

All right then…our first stop was Ruby Beach. This is where we’d hoped to do some tide-pooling. 

We checked for low tide before heading out. The lowest tides over the next few days would be during the midnight hour, and…sorry…we’ll miss that. The daytime low tide was at around 10:30 a.m. Unfortunately, what I read about tide-pooling is that it’s best done when the tide is at less than a foot. Our low tide was around four feet. So we didn’t see much, but it was still worth the trip. We enjoyed our time near the ocean very much. 

Okay now before we go, let me remind you of all the ways you could die out here today.

After reading all that, our shadow selves were a little nervous, but they came along anyway.

It was a pretty steep trail down to the beach below. We stopped at the first overlook. This is what we saw.

As we made our way closer, this is what we saw.

I wanted you to notice all the driftwood on the beach.

We picked our way over it, and looked back.

Here’s some information about it.

And then we walked north along the beach. The sea stacks were impressive. This one had a hole going all the way through…formed by water, no doubt.

This was the one place I tried to get closer to see what lived in the surf. These little mussels were tiny…maybe the size of a marble.

Here’s a little information about the tidepools.

If we were to get out to the island in the background of the image below, we had to ford the stream you see at the bottom. The water wasn’t deep, and I was wearing waterproof shoes. The problem with waterproof shoes is that they’re only waterproof if the water doesn’t come over the tops and seep down inside. It was tempting to jump here, but instead, I made my way to a log where I could balance my way across.

Here’s a picture of Mike making his way across the same log. I had my hiking pole with me, and I could plant its point in some logs to the right. Trouble is, that wasn’t possible when I crossed back the other way. There were no logs to my right when I faced the other way. Nearing the middle, I lost my balance and had to step down off the log, wetting my leg about halfway up my calf. Oh well. It barely bothered me after that.

This was a hole where one could get out on the other side of some of the rocks. The tidepools didn’t look any more promising over there, and so I didn’t attempt it.

These driftwood structures are made by tourists for fun, but I also know that building these shelters is a Coast Guard training exercise.

Looking back in the direction we’d come, it looked like this:

Continuing on, we approached this big island. It was too big to be considered a “stack.”

Looking out to sea, I had a good view of Destruction Island and the Destruction Island Lighthouse mentioned in yesterday’s post.

Next to the island, Mike caught this image of me taking a picture. It gives you some idea of scale.

Here’s the picture I was taking:

And then we headed back the other way. We had more hiking in mind.

I turned back for one more shot of the beach beyond the island.

As we walked back, I noticed this gelatinous blob. These are common on the beach here…a kind of jellyfish. My foot is there for scale.

From there, we drove another 12 miles (or so) south to one of the Kalaloch beaches. There are several pathways to the beach, some are numbered. We ended up at Beach 4.

There were approximately 50 steps down to the beach. I’m certain they’d multiplied to 5,000 steps on the way back up.

Toward the bottom, the trail leveled out.

This was blooming alongside the trail.

All right my friends. Let me remind you once again of the perils that await you on the beach.

Here’s a little information about the stacks we’ve seen.

And the rocks you’ll see along the coast in the Pacific Northwest.

Here was where we made our final descent to the beach from the trail. It required a short distance of rappelling using the rope provided. It was a little bit scary, but not terribly difficult.

Once down to beach level, we had to pick our way across these rocks to reach the sand. This beach was more rocky than the one before.

Walking north, this is what we saw.

On a high peak on one of the tacks, we saw this gull. “As a matter of fact, I do own the beach.”

As we walked along, I kept my eye on him because I wanted to try for better pictures as we drew closer. Eventually, I saw him fly away, but there was another bird there too…a female maybe?

Here’s a closer shot. It looks like a female. Possibly there’s a nest here? It seems late in the year for that.

Looking back the way we came, it looked like this:

From there we ascended the 5,000 steps that replace the ones we took on our way down. That was a good amout of hiking…more strenuous than you might think. We headed back to the RV for lunch and naps. After we’d changed our clothes, we headed to the grocery store across the street from the RV park to pick up a few things we needed. While there, I scored my first refrigerator magnet of the trip.

So today will look something like yesterday, although we won’t be on the clock at all looking for low tides. Today’s hike will be through the Hall of Moss in the Hoh Rain Forest of Olympic National Park. It’s a short and easy hike, and it will be quite different from what we did yesterday. 

Our plans for tomorrow will be to chill out. I should have lots of time for slow-stitching, and it’ll be good to relax for a while. The hiking sounds like fun. The relaxation will be welcome.