Which La Push Beach will be First, Second, and Third?

We liked Mora Campground in Olympic National Park. But it was a thirty minute drive to get back to Hiway 101, and then another thirty minutes to drive to any other attractions in the park. So on our last day at Mora, we decided to take advantage of our remote location to visit some remote beaches. Our battery was at a solid 76% capacity this morning, even with being in our shaded camp site for three days. With plenty of battery power to run our refrigerator, we were ready to go explore the three La Push beaches. There wasn't much creativity used in naming these beaches, as they are officially named First, Second, and Third Beaches. But which one will be our number one favorite beach of the day?

We started with the La Push Second Beach, and it was easy to find a parking spot since we arrived early. Like most beaches in Washington, it took a walk through the woods to get to the ocean.

It was a cool and pleasant 0.7-mile walk among the trees. We were entertained by the personalities of the trees around us. As old trees die and fall to the forest floor, they provide nutritious and protected places for new baby trees to sprout. As that baby grows to maturity, the old fallen tree eventually disintegrates, leaving a blank space under the base of the new tree.

Other trees grew branches that look like a candelabra reaching for the sky.

We finally got down to the Second Beach around 9:00, which was perfect timing since low tide was at 8:58. 

We walked out on the sand to the sea stacks. We found orange and purple sea stars hanging on, waiting for the tide to return.

Mark liked to walk around on the wet rocks, balancing on the jagged edges and slippery surfaces. That was not Denisa's idea of fun.

So Mark took pictures of a nice up-close collection of sea stars . . .

and green anemones among a herd of multi-colored sea stars.

Normally we see only the green tops of the anemone, but today Mark found a sideways view that included the anemone tubes.

While Mark was taking pictures of the treasures found in tide pools, Denisa was taking pictures of Mark.

Denisa would rather walk on the smooth sand, enjoying the sea stacks and the blue skies on the Second La Push beach.

While the distant views of the sea stacks were hazy . . .

the sun directly overhead was bright on this stretch of Second beach.

Normally, this knob of rock would have been cut off from the beach by sea water. But at low tide, a rock scrambler like Mark can get to the top. It might be hard to see him, since his blue shirt blends into the blue sky and the blue water.

We have wandered into another of God's wonders at La Push Second Beach.

We had spent all of our time on the west side of the beach. But we realized that we could also walk to some neat sea stacks on the east side of the beach during this low tide.

We had to do some puddle-jumping, but we walked over this wide expanse of sand that is usually covered with water.

If you look carefully, you can see Denisa's pink blouse in front of the massive tree-covered sea stack. She looks very tiny because these were huge rock formations.

They were home to some huge sea stars. While most are about hand-sized, this must be a grandfather sea star to have grown so big.

Now Mark has a new set of rocks to climb . . .

and more tide pools to photograph.

Again, Denisa would rather walk on the sand instead of the slippery rocks. She loved the sea caves and arches with sandy bottoms.

While Mark was taking pictures of sea stars low on the rocks, Denisa was taking pictures of the birds flying in and out of their nests high on the rocks. It's hard to see, but these black sea birds have bright red feet and legs. Google told us these were Pigeon Guillemots, and they are more comfortable under the water than in the air. They use their wings as flippers to swim up to 150 feet deep into the ocean to spear their favorite sea food.

Denisa got a little uneasy when the tide started creeping up on us. But Mark was making a new friend. He was talking to Tom from New Jersey. Mark offered to take a picture of Tom with the sea stacks since he was traveling alone. But Denisa was getting a little antsy, as she was ready to head back to higher ground before we got trapped by the rising tide. You can see the water line on those rocks, and we were soon going to be under water.

We had to take off our tennis shoes for the walk back because the puddles were now too big to hop over as the tide continued to roll in. Tom did the same, and he left about the same time we did.

But when we stopped to take a picture of an eagle, Mark heard Tom groan and then we saw him turn back and started looking for something. Mark walked back to see if he could help. Tom had just realized that he had dropped his phone as he crossed this now flooded beach area. 

Mark and Tom dropped everything they were carrying with Denisa, with instructions to not let these things get lost in the rising tide water. Then they both started back-tracking to look for that cell phone. Mark even  recruited two other beach-combers in the search.

In the meantime, Denisa moved everything to higher ground and took the picture of the eagle that caused us to pause. It's not a good picture, but any beach eagle must be documented! Tom finally gave up, and came to lament the loss to Denisa. He had just lost all his pictures on that phone, and his boarding pass for his flight back to New Jersey. He even dropped one of his socks in the search.

Just then, the phone was found! Mark walked quickly back to give it back to a very thankful guy from New Jersey. Mark even found his sock! Hopefully the phone will dry out and Tom will have a happy ending.

We dried off our feet and got our tennis shoes back on for the 0.7 mile hike back to the pickup. We had been at the La Push Second Beach for 2.5 hours and logged in 4.5 miles. How will La Push Second Beach stack up to the other two?

We drove just a few miles to the end of the highway, and the town of La Push, Washington. This tiny Indian reservation town is in a very remote area, and it was the home of the La Push First Beach. It was unusual to see a parking area right beside the water, as we were on the very western edge of Washington. First beach had a man-made jetty, and a short sandy beach that was guarded by a long row of driftwood. We climbed down over the dead trees to stand by the water, but it would take a boat ride to get to the closest sea stacks from this beach. From here we could also see Rialto Beach, where we walked last night. It's just a one-mile boat ride from here to Rialto, but a ten mile car drive.

We saw more people actually swimming in the cold Atlantic water at La Push First Beach. But one of our favorite parts of this beach were the flowering blackberry bushes on the beach. But they were several weeks away from eating berries on the beach.

We didn't stay long at La Push First Beach, before we jumped in the car for the ride to the third La Push beach of the day. We were lucky to find a parking space, and then we started the 1.4-mile hike through a delightful forest to get to the Third Beach. We walked up the hill, and then back down through the tall hemlocks and ferns.

Then we had to climb over a maze of fallen trees to actually stand on the beach.

Wow! Between the long walk and scrambling over the driftwood, we had to work to get to this beautiful beach!

We headed east to a series of sea stacks. But we soon found that we couldn't get there. Third beach was hemmed in by two tall headland rocks that go all the way into ocean.

We've walked under some huge trees since we arrived to the Pacific Northwest. Some of them have fallen onto the beach, where standing beside their bark-less trunks made one feel small.

We were here two hours before high tide, and we could tell the water was coming higher quickly. While we could walk around some of the huge logs and rock columns now, it wouldn't be long before this dry walkway would be under water.

We didn't want to get trapped on the other side of the rock wall, so we headed back down to the entrance area of the beach. We did less time and less miles on the La Push Third Beach than we would have done if it was low tide. Even with the 2.8 miles we walked through the forest, we only added four miles to our day's walking total at La Push Third Beach.

So which La Push beach did we like the most? This is a confusing summary, but here is the answer:

We went to Second Beach first, and we would rate it as our first choice. 

We went to First Beach second, and we would rate it as our third choice.

We went to Third Beach third, and we would rate is as our second choice.

But any day at the La Push Beaches would be a first-rate beach day! This finished up a flurry of Washington beach days. In the last five days, we had visited ten different Pacific Coast beaches. This was our last evening at Mora Campground in Olympic National Park, and we were glad to say that our trailer battery was at 73%. We only produced five amp hours at our shady site this day, and our refrigerator used more than that. But we'll recharge on the drive to our next campground tomorrow as we bid farewell to the ocean.

Hoh Rainforest and Ruby Beach - Trip Planning Tips

We were blessed to get to stay inside Olympic National Park in our little trailer with solar power. When we traveled with our big diesel motor home, staying inside the national park campgrounds with their tiny spaces and no electricity wasn't a possibility. But even when staying inside this massive park, things were still further apart than we first realized, and took longer to drive to. So it takes some good planning, a sense of location, and realistic expectations for a successful trip. We knew that Olympic National Park encompassed most of the Olympic Peninsula--which is the the entire northwest section of the state that is surrounded by water on three sides. Highway 101 circles the peninsula, and is the main thoroughfare. But all the "attractions" tourists want to see were on spur roads that can be many miles off the 101. Speed limits were slow, so travel times were long. For instance, we were staying in the national park at Mora Campground, but it was a two-hour drive to get there after we entered the southern entrance of the park. That's why we made a couple stops with the trailer in tow on our way to the campground--to avoid having to drive two hours back to see those attractions. 

The second day's plan was to see two of Olympic National Park's most popular attractions--Hoh Rain Forest and Ruby Beach. Hoh Rain Forest was the closest "attraction" to our campground, but it was 44 miles away. At the slow speed limits, it took us well over an hour to get to Hoh Rain Forest! 

So we were up at 6:15 for the early morning trip. The ranger had told us to be there before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m., or expect to spend two hours in line waiting for a parking space. We had to drive thirty minutes to get from our campground to highway 101, then we drove through the town of Forks, then through three different construction one-lane sections with waits each time, then 18 more miles off highway 101 on the spur road to the rain forest. Whew!

Because we were so early, there wasn't a line where they were metering the number of cars that were filling the small parking area close to the trails. But we saw signs along the road that indicated the wait times from each point. For example, if you were in line at a certain posted sign you could expect a 30-minute wait, or another sign indicated a hour-long wait, or another sign posted a two-hour wait. We were glad to be early with no wait!

But we didn't see those wait time signs until we had already driven almost an hour. For visitors that weren't aware of the crowds, it would be a sad thing to see those signs after already driving so far. Even getting there so early in the morning, all the spaces in the parking lot were full, and we had to park well down the road adding to our hiking distances this morning.

We were glad we had done our homework earlier (back when we had a phone signal) because the Hoh Rainforest visitor center was not yet open for the day. We knew we wanted to first hike the Hall of Mosses Trail Loop. The pictures on the blog so far have been of this 1.4-mile loop from the most famous rain forest in the United States.

It was filled with ferns and old-growth Sitka Spruce, Western Hemlocks, and Big Leaf Maples that were draped in moss. It was a magical place! Even with the long drive early this morning, it was definitely worth it to wander more of God's wonders at the Hoh Rain Forest!

The size of the trees was amazing! Over their long life-times, many of their roots have formed cave-like entrances under them.

It was hard to tell how tall tree were until they fell to the ground. This was just a third of the length of this fallen tree, and Denisa seemed very far away in the picture below.

By the time we finished our hike around the Hall of Mosses trail, the visitor center was open. This was where we could have stamped our national park passport book--if we just would have been smart enough to start one ten years ago.

We also saw that a ranger was getting ready to give a talk this morning. We always learn so many things at these presentations, so we stayed to listen. He pointed out that it took 100 inches of rain per year to meet the definition of a rain forest. While that isn't usually a problem, they were way behind in rainfall for 2025. They were hoping for a rainy fall season.

He explained the differences between the sticky Sitka spruce and the droopy hemlock trees that we had walked beneath. These two tree species made up most of the trees here at Hoh Rain Forest. He also pointed out the Douglas-fir trees, which Mr. Douglas misnamed because they in fact were not fir trees at all. The only deciduous tree that does well with this much moisture is the big leaf maple. This tree got its clever name because--well--the leaves are big. While the hemlock trees grow to gigantic proportions with all the rain, it was interesting that their pine cones were so small.

We learned that the pine cones from the Douglas fir trees had a unique marking. The ranger called the markings "mouse bites."

After learning so much, we decided to hike the 1.5 mile Spruce Nature Trail. That gave us a chance to practice our tree identification skills.

The trail had plenty of those big leaf maple trees with big leaves.

This loop leads all the way to the Hoh River, and many longer trails that head even deeper into Olympic National Park's interior. We didn't have time for a long hike, because it wouldn't fit into our trip planning.

We were staying six days inside the national park, so we had the time to make this early morning trip to see the rain forest. But for visitors in a hurry, some sources recommended a stop at the Quinault Rain Forest instead. We stopped there yesterday on our way in, and we would say that the Hoh was grander, but similar to the Quinault.

These big old trees were nurtured by abundant rain fall, but they also got the violent winds from coastal storms. A giant tree leave a massive root ball when it falls in the forest. We stayed two hours and fifteen minutes at the Hoh Rain Forest, and then decided it was time to give up our precious parking spot to another visitor.

It was a six-mile drive to get back to the point where they stop traffic and let one car in as one car leaves. When we left, we counted fifty cars waiting in line at 10:45. From here, it's another twelve miles to get back to Highway 101. We met another 90 cars on that drive. They will definitely be stopped at the "two hour wait" sign by the time they arrive. Another thing we learned is that the Hoh Rain Forest Campground would be much closer to the hiking. But campers have to wait in this same line any time they want to come back to their camp site. We didn't relish the idea of waiting two hours to pop into our trailer for lunch in the middle of the day, so that's why we didn't stay at Hoh Campground.

Now back on the 101 highway that encircles the national park, we had to drive 14 (slow) miles to get to our next attraction of the day--Ruby Beach. The distance between our two attractions was just 32 miles, but it took another hour to drive that distance. The good news was that a new larger parking area for this popular beach had recently been completed, and we found empty spots even in the middle of the day. That's why we chose to go to Hoh Rainforest first.

After a hike down a steep trail, visitors must cross a maze of bleached driftwood logs to get to the beach. Some of these logs were as big as whole trees, and crawling up and over them was hard. This was definitely not a handicap-accessible beach.

But it was beautiful! It was littered with sea stacks--the local name for the huge boulders lying in or near the water. Denisa was standing in a sea stack with an arch.

That arch makes a nice frame for the Pacific Ocean behind it.

We found another arch closer to the ocean edge, and Mark took his turn for a picture framed by an arch.

But he was startled when a rogue wave brought that ocean up through that seemingly dry arch. Denisa got a late picture of the drenching he "enjoyed".

Ruby Beach reminds us of the sea stacks and beaches we loved in our first trip to the Oregon coast. Some of the stacks were as big as cruise ships. You can see Mark's red shirt in the cave entrance to another larger sea stack.

Low tide was at 8:30 this morning, so the tide was definitely coming in by the time we arrived. We would have loved to be at Ruby Beach at low tide to find the sea stars clinging to the bottom of these sea stacks. But we had to make a choice this morning based on parking options.

After our long beach walk on the rocks last night, we were smarter this day. We wore our tennis shoes to navigate a long walk on Ruby Beach. Our legs were suffering from shin splints because of the way we walked in the shifting beach sand. As we added another couple of tough miles walking on these beach rocks, our feet were beginning to hate us.

The fog at the coast gave a mystical look to the coast line as we walked further up the beach. We didn't find any sea shells or sand dollars on Ruby Beach.

This was such a beautiful place, and we were blessed by another blue-sky day. We heard that two days in a row was quite uncommon here in the Pacific Northwest. We thought we should move to Washington and just live on the beach. But we're afraid that the only thing we could afford to live in might be the make-shift drift wood lean-tos.

Yep, this was probably the closest thing we'll ever have to a beach house.

It was another tricky walk over more driftwood to get back out of Ruby Beach. We were tired from our hikes, but it was hard to leave when the weather and the scenery was so beautiful.

We had to drive back through the town of Forks, Washington, on our hour-long drive back to the campground. We stopped by the local grocery store to buy some thick pork chops and fresh vegetables. It was unusually hot in Forks--94 degrees this afternoon. One local told us that few houses in Forks have air-conditioning because they rarely need it. Today was one of those rare occasions. We've been on the road for well over a month, and we hadn't gotten out the cast iron griddle that we have toted half-way across the country. But today Mark grilled a feast of fried potatoes, pork chops, grilled broccoli and carrots. We paired that with fresh cantaloupe, and ate on the picnic table with trees towering over us. 

While it was hot in town, we were totally shaded and only a mile from the ocean at our campground. So we were pleasantly cool.  Our solar panels only made 5 amps this day, a record low amount because of our totally shaded spot. But after two days, we still had 85% battery charge. We also had plenty of water on board for showers in this primitive campground (where our tenting neighbors were really roughing it). We were blessed!