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.