Long and Very Full First Day in Olympic National Park - Quinault to Rialto Beach

We left our full-hook-up site campground and headed towards a long stretch of no hook-up campground days in the often-cloudy Pacific Northwest. This area is known for cloudy and rainy weather, and we hoped our solar panels were up for it! But we were surprised to see beautiful blue skies as we headed north up Highway 101 towards the entrance of Olympic National Park. We found out the 101 highway was "ripply" and a little hard to drive with a trailer. We also found that  there was no big national park visitor center handing out maps and information. We were mainly on our own to figure out where to stop and how to see this vast national park, so we were glad that we had a plan. We visited here on a fast trip in 2017, so we were prepared to spend more time at a slower pace for this visit.

Our first stop was at the Quinault Lodge. The green yard behind the lodge overlooks Lake Quinault, and a bright array of kayaks that can be rented for a spin on the lake.

The lodge offers historic old rooms on this southern border of the national park. This section was less visited than the northern sections, and we had no problems finding a parking place that would fit the pickup and trailer. But we didn't find any visitor center or ranger station for advice or maps.

We had already researched the hiking possibilities, and picked out the Falls Creek and Quinault Loop Trail. We headed into the rain forest at the trail head.

On our way, we paused by a Redwood Tree near the lodge. We love the tall Redwoods, but didn't get to stop at any of the Redwood forests in California. So it seemed like we found an old friend when we found this one.

We stopped by Cascade Falls, which was a little underwhelming.

But we loved the old growth trees dwarfing everything and everyone around them. Can you see Denisa at the bottom of the trunk?

The rain forest was so dense that this hike was dark and spooky at times--even in the middle of a sunny day.

The old logs have come back to life as it looks like they have grown hair and sprouted faces made of tree fungi.

After a 2.7 mile loop, we headed back to the pickup in the now crowded parking lot. That's where we found the biggest and purplest (is that a word?!?) hydrangea ever! The size of a dinner plate, it's an example of how big something can get when it gets lots of water.

Our next stop was just a mile down the road. But the crowds had arrived, and we had a very hard time finding a parking place big enough for the pickup and trailer. After the 0.6-mile hike, we got to see the world's largest sitka spruce. This tree is 191 feet tall and 59 feet in circumference. In this valley they also host the world's largest western red cedar, Douglas fir, and mountain hemlock tree. Things grow this well when watered with the 13 feet of rain they average per year. We're used to measuring rain down to the hundredth of an inch, and here they measure it in feet. 

After our stop in Quinault, we headed further north on highway 101. It's another two hour's drive to our campground here inside Olympic National Park, so we tried to do some sight-seeing on the way so we didn't have to come back to this southern section. We passed the Kalaloch Beaches. The only parking was in small pull-outs right along the 101. With the trailer in tow, we couldn't fit into the parking at beach 1 or beach 2, but we snagged a place at beach 3. Our pickup and trailer would fit here! As we looked down on the beach, we were surprised that 64 degrees at the highway level felt hot.

We hiked down the steep path to the beach, and the cold wind off the water suddenly made it feel chilly. It's amazing how a few feet in elevation and the wind off the water can change the temperature.

The tide was rising as we took a walk down Kolaloch's Beach 3. Mark loves to scramble on rocks--even when the increasingly high ocean water was splashing all around them. 

He was soon surrounded as the water continued to rise around his perch on the rocks.

It looked like he was conducting the waves as they splashed against the rocks that were high and dry just moments ago.

Denisa obviously has a much more risk-averse personality. She preferred to walk on the beach far from the approaching tide.

If she scrambled on the rocks, you could be sure that the rocks were far from the incoming water's edge.

We loved these weathered old sea rocks on this beautiful blue-sky day. We saw only two other people on this entire stretch of beautiful beach. We had wandered onto more of God's wonders!

As we climbed out of beach 3, we met a local coming down the steep path. He was marveling at the unusual weather. He told us that this beach was usually cold, cloudy, and rainy. It was a rare treat to see blue skies here in this section of the Pacific Northwest. We have been blessed!

We continued north on Highway 101 through Olympic National Park. The other beach parking areas were too congested for trailer parking so we kept driving. Actually, we stopped frequently, but it wasn't for beaching. It was because of the continued construction on this section of the highway. We went through several more sections of one-lane highway that was monitored by automatic stop lights. That made our drive last longer. After that cool beach stop, we finally pulled into the town of Forks, Washington. Best known for hosting the "Twilight" trilogy of books, today it was unusually hot at 91 degrees. We haven't seen temperatures that hot since the second stop of this trip over a month ago.

At Forks, Washington, we left Highway 101. We were headed to Mora Campground, that was ten miles off the main loop road that encircles Olympic National Park. We headed ten miles straight west, towards the Pacific Ocean. We got set up in site #43 in Loop C.

We snagged this spot inside the national park 14 days ago when they opened up Loop C reservations at 7 a.m. All those spots were filled by 7:01 a.m. We played the national park campground game and won this time and got a great spot. We were a little worried about how our solar could charge our battery under the shade of these big beautiful trees for our three-night stay. We are also far from any telephone signal, but we found we could borrow some free wifi from the Three Rivers Cafe just four miles away. We also made a stop at the ranger station at the entrance of the campground to finally get a national park map and a little advice.

We got our bikes out for a ride around the three loops that make up Mora Campground. After studying the layout of the campground on-line so we would know which site would be best for our trailer, it was interesting to see them for ourselves. We probably could have been happy with any of the campsites now that we have a tiny trailer. We also hiked the only trail in this section of the national park--the 2.4-mile James Pond trail.

The advice from the ranger included the tide schedule. While Mora Campground is ten miles off the 101 highway, it is close to some beautiful beaches. After a full day of sight-seeing, we headed to one of the most popular beaches at 6:30 p.m.

We chose this time for a combination sunset stroll and low tide exploration walk. We had on our jackets in August because it was a little nippy on Rialto Beach in the evening. It was also a popular place and time to be here. We found the large parking lot full, and we followed the mile-long line of hundreds of other hikers on the beach.

We were all heading to the "Hole-in-the-Wall" and its adjoining sea stacks. You can only stand where Denisa is under that hole at low tide.

After waiting in a bit of a line of tourists, we finally got a picture without the crowds. It was an unusually clear blue sky that enabled us to see the sea stacks far out in the ocean framed by the hole.

A picture from the other direction shows the forest that marches up the mountain behind the beach.

It was a slippery walk across the crusty rocks to get to the hole in the wall. But when we stopped to see the details, we saw the uncovered sea stars waiting for the end of low tide.

This sea anemone was still happy to be soaked in salt water, with its green fingers unfurled.

We couldn't decide if we liked the purple sea stars . . .

or the orange sea stars the best. We're also not sure what the difference is, because they usually hang out together.

The sun was slanting across the beach as we approached the golden hour on Rialto Beach.

We had hurried past Split Rock in our haste to get to the Hole in the Wall at the lowest tide. But on our way back we had time to stop for pictures and exploring the tide pools here. That's Mark standing between the splits of Split Rock.

As it got later, the crowds got smaller. We wore our crocs for this beach walk. As we walked 3.75 miles on this rocky--then sandy--beach we decided that crocs weren't our best decision. Tennis shoes would have been better on the rocky tide pool areas too. But for the softest section we left barefoot prints in the sand.

The sun was low in the sky as we captured it in the split of Split Rocks from a different angle.

We got to see the sun set on the west coast on our first day at Olympic National Park.

Besides going to our son's wedding, visiting this national park was a main destination for this summer. It's good to have made it to one more destination.

We stayed on the beach until 9:00, and the parking lot was still crowded when we left. We were just glad that we had only a two mile drive back to our trailer at Mora Campground in the dark. It's been a long and very full first day in Olympic National Park!

How many sand dollars will we find on the Hidden Coast?

After another night of full-hook-ups at Hoquiam River RV Park, we were up early to make a scenic drive up "The Hidden Coast" of Washington. You can only get to this remote stretch of the Pacific Coast from its southern entrance, and the road eventually dead ends into an Indian reservation. So we were expecting fewer crowds on this Saturday drive. We were also hoping to find some sea shells, maybe even sand dollars on the hidden beaches. We ask you to place your bets and predict how many sand dollars we will find. Keep that number in mind and keep reading. It was a 25-mile drive to get to the little town of Ocean Shores, Washington, for our first view of the Pacific Ocean this morning.

While we much prefer finding natural boulders and sea stacks on the beach to explore, at Ocean Shores we had only a man-made rock jetty.

Even though we got up early, we were two hours past low tide by the time we arrived at the beach. With no natural boulders protecting sea life, Mark had read that this massive rock jetty was a good place to explore at low tide.

Sure enough, by scrambling around those big boulders and getting to the water's edge, we found plenty of sea stars exposed by the low waters of low tide.

This duo of sea stars seemed to be dancing to the music of the ocean waves as they clung to the side of the jetty rocks.

This purple sea star was hanging on right above a long line of sea anemones. The anemones had closed their green feathery fingers until the water from the tide returned.

These exposed rocks were also home to small shells and barnacles that had glued themselves to every available hard surface.

So even though Ocean Shores wasn't the most beautiful beach, it was still an interesting place to explore during low tide.

But how many sand dollars would we find on this Hidden Coast? As we left the jetty and walked on the sand, we began to see the Saturday beach crowd arriving. But we found no shells, no rocks, and especially no sand dollars on this beach.

Before we left our campground this morning, we stopped by the office. In the last blog we mentioned that one of the reasons we stayed at the Hoquiam RV Park was the fact that the owner bakes fresh bakery goods every day to give to the campers. Even though we had just eaten breakfast, we stopped by to get the dessert of the day--lemon bars. After exploring our first beach, it seemed a good time for a fresh home-made lemon bar snack.

We decided to drive further north on the Hidden Coast road to the entry of the first Washington State Park in this area. Normally we would have to pay $10 to buy a one-day Discover Pass to park at the state park. But we had read a sign yesterday that informed us that this Saturday, August 9, was one of the free days where no pass was needed. In honor of Smokey Bear's Birthday, we could park for free this day. So we were a little surprised to see a young ranger patrolling the parking lot at Ocean City State Park, writing parking tickets for vehicles without the Discover Pass. Before he approached our pickup, we asked him about free admission for Smokey Bear's birthday. He thought we were joking, until we showed him the sign. No one had told him about this free day!

From that parking lot (where the ranger had to tear up some tickets he had just written), we had to walk about a half-mile through the forest and across the sand dunes to get to the ocean. Or there was a different entry where vehicles could drive that half-mile to park right on the beach. The Saturday crowd had picked up by now, and there was a line as far as we could see of high clearance vehicles parked on the beach.

We had read about vehicles getting stuck on the beach, so we preferred a walk on the beach instead of a drive. Besides, we could get closer to the water when we walked.

Again, we found almost no rocks or shells on this shallow beach even at low tide.

But wait, we're supposed to be keeping track of the number of sand dollars we find on the Hidden Coast. So Denisa started picking up the few she found in the surf. These look good, right?

Wrong! When she turned them over, each one was broken on the top. We were only counting the unbroken sand dollars, so we obviously couldn't count these. Our sand dollar count was still at zero for the Hidden Coast.

But it was a lovely day, with blue skies and calm winds. Ocean City State Park was still a nice place to spend some time. But we had to share the beach with that endless line of cars . . .

and bikes . . . and even horses. We found that horse-back riding on the beach was very popular here.

The Hidden Coast road ends in an Indian Reservation, and the Quinault tribe had a big casino on this road. We especially liked that it was a non-smoking casino that gave free play to new members. So we promptly signed up and promptly lost our $10 in free play. But they also gave each of us $5 towards a food purchase in their casino cafe. So we were glad to use our $10 off to purchase a Philly steak sandwich and fries for lunch. Still no sand dollars, but that sandwich was a good find!

Our last stop on the Hidden Coast was an isolated Griffiths-Priday State Park. Fewer people will drive this far along this coastal road, so we didn't see anyone checking for the daily Discover Pass. But thanks to Smokey Bear's birthday we didn't have to pay that $10 entrance fee. After parking, we had a one-mile walk through the coastal forest and across the sand dunes to get to the ocean. But on the way we found something new to us.

Another hiker introduced us to coastal huckleberries. While we have eaten huckleberries all over the mountains of the west, we had no idea they grew near the ocean.

While they are tiny, and not as tasty as their mountain cousins, we were glad to have a coastal huckleberry snack on our walk to the beach.

We also found a black-tailed deer on our walk to the beach. While we were used to white-tailed deer in the midwest, we were getting used to seeing their black-tailed cousins here in the Pacific Northwest.

When we finally made it to Copalis beach, we discovered why few people make this drive and long hike. The wide beach was very plain, with lots of holes in the sand.

Besides that, we had completely lost the blue skies we enjoyed just a couple hours and a few miles down the coast. We read that Griffiths-Priday State Park was usually windy and cloudy. That was certainly true today.

It was pretty miserable on this remote beach. We were getting sand-blasted, as were the local wildlife. There was so much sand in the air that we had a hard time focusing on this eagle perched near the beach.

There wasn't any reason to stay on this lonely uncomfortably windy beach . . . until we found our first perfect sand dollar in that dark sand. It was polished smooth and white with the signature five-petal flower on the top. And that top was not broken.

We were about a half-mile from the entrance of the beach when we spotted that first sand dollar, and then very soon we spotted another. But this was like no sand dollar we had ever found. It was fresh from the sea, with its fern-like covering still in place.

We turned it over, and it looked almost hairy when compared to the smooth white ones we usually find.

We were intrigued by Copalis Beach, even though the weather was getting worse. The wind was so strong that a huge flock of gulls had hunkered down on the sand, and didn't even budge when we walked by.

We found more of these fresh sand dollars, some of them with a tinge of purple to their hairy coverings. How many sand dollars will we find?

We seldom take home the sea shells we find. Instead, we use them to spell out something on the beach. Today we had enough to make our first-ever sand dollar dollar sign.

We used the polished white ones for the "s" and the purple new ones for the line going through it. It take 19 sand dollars to make a dollar sign. That's quite a few. But how many sand dollars will we find on the Hidden Coast?

As we walked further up that lonely beach, we realized that we were going where few people would ever walk. Few people come here on a nice day, and obviously no one else would walk this far on a cold and windy day like today. But Denisa was still bending down, picking up sand dollars while the grounded gulls watched. She obviously had more than she could carry, so she finally decided to just count them. But she would count only the perfect sand dollars without broken notches or cracked tops.

Besides sand dollars, we saw that the rough water had left a sea star on the beach.

We also found lots of crabs left stranded on the beach.

But how many sand dollars would we find on this singular beach on the hidden coast? As she counted, she hoped for 25, then 44 like our anniversary year. Then wouldn't it be fun to find 100? Wow! Could it be 200? We walked close to the water, then we walked back in the dry sand further from the ocean. In the 3/4-mile walk we counted 341 perfect sand dollars--and hundreds more that were broken. When you add the 19 in the sand dollar dollar sign, we found 360! We're guessing that no one had that number in mind when we asked that question at the beginning of this blog.

As we walked away from the ocean, we followed the river for a mile. As you can see, Denisa is still carrying a handful of sand dollars. When you see so many, you can't leave all of them behind!

We were tired from struggling against the wind, and we found we had sand in our hair, in our ears, in our noses . . . but it was one of the most fun beach days ever. As we drove south down the Hidden Coast road, we got back to the blue skies. It was crazy that Copalis Beach was so different than anything around it! After we took long showers at our full-hook-up sight, we were enjoying more of the good weather. We walked along the river that runs beside our campground, and through the private section of rain forest behind us.

We watched the sun go down over our river on our last evening. We have certainly enjoyed the Hidden Coast--and the 360 sand dollars we found this day!