The Twilight book series took place in this area. The werewolves lived in La Push, so no vampires were allowed. We drove into Vampire country and hiked Rialto beach. They say to hike it at low tide otherwise you have to hop along these giant tree trunks instead of walking on the beach. This is one of the wildest beaches we have ever been too. Huge crashing waves, rocks , cliffs, logs. From the trail head at Rialto you can hike 30 miles north on Olympic National park wilderness beach. No development, no roads, just the coast the way is was when the Indians lived here 100’s of years ago. There are may places where you have to hike at low tide or get trapped up against the cliff, and others where the headland is impassable on the beach,and you always have to use the overland trail. At the beginning the beach is not sand, but cobblestones. They make the coolest sound when the waves tumble them in and out.
The logs roll around during high tide, so they are extremely dangerous. Sudden high waves can pick up beach logs and turn them into weapons that can kill you. The bottom photo below the sign John is walking among the logs at lower tide. We left just as the tide turned, so as we went along it we got more beach. But we still had to time the waves, and if they came close we could jump back up on the logs
John going around the corner by the big sea stacks. Our goal was the arch, Hole in the Wall in this photo. The surf was too high to approach the arch.
So we hung out on the logs in the sun and had lunch and waited. We hiked over the headland to the other side of the arch. They had steps built into the trail. It was still VERY steep. You can see John at the bottom.
On the other side we found tide pools. We had to wait for the tide to go out a little more before we could go back through the arch.
We still had to time the waves , but we got back through. Those logs John is walking by were the ones we had lunch at when the waves were licking the logs. The light was beautiful on the way back. We could walk the whole way on the beach, it was much easier.
We met a few people hiking out to the rocks for sunset. Ellen river flowing into the ocean.
John is in the middle of the shot standing on the big logs. The ones you don’t want rolling around in the surf with you. Me on a beach that was mostly tiny little rocks that glittered in the sun.
John crawled into the hole in the log and took a photo of me taking his photo. The sun was setting as we got back to the parking lot.
Sunset on the rocks that are across from our campsite. The Quillayute river is between camp and us. You have to go up and around through the vampire land to get back. Much of the beach is made up of rocks like this, rocks lodged in a log, serpentine rocks on logs, knots on another beach log.
Sea anemones, snails, tiny fish things, cool rings on a log and more anemones.
Mussels covered with barnacles, the glittering tiny rocks on the beach, a bald eagle, barnacles.
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