It's About the (RV) Journey....: Beaches of Olympic National Park..........

Another section of Olympic National Park includes the rugged coastline. One of the most popular and easily accessible of these beaches on the Olympic Peninsula is Rialto Beach, famous for sea stacks and logs on the beach. The area is beautiful, with the forest going right down to the coastline. Rialto also has lots of picnic tables scattered among the downed trees, as well as nice bathrooms. Its easy to get to, no hiking involved. We stopped early in the day, but not early enough to catch low tide so we could walk on the beach. So, we just checked it out to return later in the day.

nice drive to the beach area

the view around the bend..where the river meets the sea

no fireworks or any open flames....Washington is a tinderbox these days!

this beach is so dramatic!

nice picnic area in the shade (checking it out for later!)

Second and Third Beaches are also lovely beaches, separated by land so you can't walk directly from beach to beach. To reach each beach requires a bit of a hike up and over the mountain. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit...but just a little bit! The hike at Second Beach is only about 3/4 of a mile, but the hike to Third Beach is a 1.5 mile hike. We saved that for another day, and went to Second Beach. The walk to get to the beach is through old growth forest, which is gorgeous and refreshing since its so shadey. Once you descend the final leg of the trail, you are "dumped" on the beach....with a rim of logs washed up from the sea. It is beautiful! The beach is really wide, there are sea stacks and tide pools, and lots of tent camping!! I'll bet that is a great experience!

ready Susie?

I can' t believe we are walking to the beach! We are in the forest!!

of course lots of uphill (not too steep though!)

love these enchanting forests

not sure what is going on with that tree

some of the trees are scary looking...hahahah

its a gentle uphill climb

so lush and green

moss over everything

supersized!

following the surfers down to the beach (this is only one segment...there are a lot more)

there's the ocean now!

coming through the forest, you end up here

just got to get over the logs

easy does it...hahahhaha

We walked up and down the beach, enjoying the views and just being at the ocean. Sea stacks, tide pools....and the Pacific Ocean! Nice!

let's go that way

very cool

nice wide beach....and beautiful with the sea stacks and tide pools

high tide so we didn't get to explore a lot of tide pools

nice...that one on the left is so flat!

another view

really nice beach

rolling waves crashing against the rocks

exploring some tide pools

interesting

close up

sea stacks getting pelted by waves

see the tent behind my right shoulder? lots of people camp on the beach but we didn't want to be obvious taking pics

very interesting beach

heading back up

Our lunch was in the car, so we decided to go to First Beach (which was not too far away and had no hiking involved to get to the beach) to relax and eat lunch. This beach is on tribal land, not part of the National Park, but it is easily accessible and we thought it had a wide beach. It required a recreation pass, to be purchased in an office we didn't see. Though the beach was very nice, we decided to return to Rialto Beach to enjoy our lunch there and spend some time in our chairs...hahahah. (The real deal breaker: Rialto had nice bathrooms and First Beach had a gross port-o-john).

hhmmm....new business Dad?

nice beach here too

so many logs

the other side of the parking lot

really nice here too

What a lovely lunch we had! So many other people had the same idea, so there were no picnic tables available anywhere. Not to worry. There was plenty of seating on the beach...oceanview! As I was ~~inhaling~~ eating my tuna sandwich, Tom was diligently surveying the ocean while he was eating his peanut butter sandwich and he noticed we had a guest! So much fun to watch! There were a couple of seals, but the one was pretty close to us for a long time.

table for two?

is this perfect or what??

this will do...hahahahha....its GREAT!

oh hello! smell my tuna sandwich?

the waves just kept rolling in...nice!

the seal is so close...wonder if it would ride a wave onto the shore

lots of people were taking rocks ....but we go by the philosophy of "take only pictures, leave only footprints"

our lunchtime view

We took a nice walk on the beach, but the tide was coming in and it was almost high tide so we turned around before too long. There are warnings to pay attention to the tide tables so you don't get stuck! The beach is not all that wide. 'Nuff said! We got our chairs out of the car and got comfy on the beach with our kindles (ok, and knitting too), and spent a lovely afternoon at the beach. It has been pretty hot here, with temperatures way above normal (around 90), so it was very refreshing to be at the beach, where the temperature was just perfect....70's with a sea breeze! Sweet! We are so lucky and we are enjoying every day on our adventure of a lifetime!