Olympic National Park - Guess What We Saw at Rialto Beach! (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

Alan, Kyra and I were up and out early on Day #30 of our West Coast National Parks trip.  Our pace was grueling, but we were trying to see and do as much as possible in the five and a half weeks we had.  The main event of the day was a “hike” to the “Hole-in-the-Wall” at Rialto Beach, and our timing had to be perfect.  The best time to safely walk out to and back from the Hole-in-the-Wall was at low tide.  Not only would going at low tide allow us access to a large number of tide pools, it would also ensure that we could walk back rather than swim.  You don’t want to challenge the tides, people – you’ll never win.  As Geoffrey Chaucer said, “Time and tide wait for no man.”

Trying to cover territory in Olympic National Park is time-consuming since the park is large and the road system is not well-developed.  Although we traveled only 60 miles from our base camp at Salt Creek Recreation Area in Port Angeles, the drive took us nearly 90 minutes.  When we arrived at Rialto Beach, the fog along the coast was fairly thick, but we didn’t let that stop us from strolling the 3.3 miles (roundtrip).  I have absolutely no idea how much time we spent at Rialto Beach, but we took our sweet time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Tide pools were everywhere.  Each was a surprise package from Mother Nature - we never knew what we’d find when we peeked in.  Sea stars and anemones were plentiful and simply delightful to sit and contemplate.  We weren’t the only ones contemplating the shoreline.  A bald eagle flew to a tree near the beach and was doing some contemplation of its own.

So many different sizes and colors of sea anemones!

Sea stars were plentiful, too.

Marine life left exposed by the retreating tides to "Oooo" and "Ah" over!

The highlight of our walk along Rialto Beach wasn’t what was in the tide pools, but what was running past them.  Alan spotted a sea otter coming out of the water.  It ran across the beach and up into the heavy vegetation that lined the top of the beach.  Sea otters don’t often leave the water, but will occasionally haul out to escape predators, get warm or rest and recover from illness or injury.  The sea otter we saw looked healthy, and a couple we spoke with on the beach had been watching it feeding in the water for quite a while before it came ashore.  Although we didn’t know why the otter left the water, we did know we were in the right place at the right time to witness the event!

Sea otter at the water's edge

The Hole-in-the-Wall was easy to spot from a distance, and it was fun to walk through the “hole” to the other side and back.  After a leisurely return along the beach to the parking lot, we continued down the coast, stopping at two other beaches within the park.   While the beaches may have been more impressive (and produced better photos) on a blue sky day, walking in quiet companionship with the fog provided a different kind of pleasure.  Strolling through the setting of muted grays proved to be a deliciously peaceful experience.  If we return to Rialto Beach in the future, my fingers will be crossed for beautiful weather, but I won’t be disappointed if it’s the fog that greets our return like an old friend.

No, that's not Hole-in-the-Wall - it's the appropriately named Split Rock.

THIS is Hole-in-the-Wall!  (Also appropriately named.)

Our beach adventures were followed by a drive to the Hoh Rain Forest section of Olympic National Park.  By the time we arrived at the Visitor Center there, Alan and Kyra had just about had it for the day.  So, I tackled the Hall of Mosses Trail on my own.  “Tackle” probably isn’t the right word for it.  This trail is a small loop – not quite a mile – through an old growth rainforest and a grove of maple trees covered in club moss.  I was going to pick up the Spruce Nature Trail – just over a mile in length – but the sign below stopped me dead in my tracks.  I wasn’t carrying bear spray, didn’t have my 6’ tall husband with me, and figured my little 5’, 1” self was no match for Mama Moose.  The Spruce Nature Trail will still be there if we return in the future; hopefully, the moose won’t.

The early morning fog at Rialto Beach colored the shoreline with an other-worldly feel, and the Hoh Rain Forest felt other-worldly, too, but for a different reason.  In the rain forest, the mosses and humidity embraced and enclosed visitors as if in a cocoon, making civilization seem light years away.  So. Much. Green!

Remembering the snow-capped mountains we had seen in the Hurricane Ridge section of the park, I thought Olympic National Park with its three diverse ecosystems almost felt like three distinct and separate parks.  As one park with three different personalities, it lent itself to all kinds of adventures and explorations, and every single one them was awe-inspiring.

Our brief visit to Olympic National Park came to a close, and it was time to work our way just a bit more north and west in Washington.  Olympic had been #7 out of nine National Parks on this expedition; it was time to move along to #8 - another park that was as new-to-us as Olympic had been.