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A hike on the Washington Coast
Washington State is lucky enough to have 3 of the most spectacular National Parks. Two of which can easily be viewed from Seattle on a nice day: Mount Rainier National Park to the South and Olympic National Park to the West, with Mount Baker on the border of North Cascades National park visible on exceptionally clear days.
Every year I manage to make several trips to one or more of these great parks, and at least once a year I try and do a multi-day backpacking trip in one of these parks; this year the park of choice was Olympic National Park. Along with glaciated peaks and temperate rain forests, Olympic National Park also has 70+ miles of some of the most primitive coast line in the lower 48, with much of it only accessible by foot. It was on this primitive coast line of Olympic National Park that this year’s backpacking trip was planned. The trip included myself, my buddy James, and my brother-in-law Dan.
I decided to keep it easy since none of us had never hiked on the coast (which I had been told was far different than much of the hiking I had done in the mountains). The hike was a modified version of the Ozette Loop Trail. The Ozette loop trail is a easy 9 mile hike involving hiking 3 miles from Lake Ozette to the coast on a trail, then 3 miles on the coast then 3 miles back to Lake Ozette on a different trail (we added an additional 4 miles to the coast hiking part). Many people will camp at Lake Ozette and do the hike as a day hike, but we wanted to camp on the beach.
Our trip started off with a 6 am departure time to catch a ferry out to the Olympic Peninsula. The drive was a very scenic one, even crossing the hood canal bridge was a scenic event as the bridge disappeared into the fog with the far side hidden from view.
After a short drive we reached the town of Port Angles where we picked up our back country permits from the park head quarters. All backcountry camping in Olympic National Park requires permits and for many areas you need to make reservations in order to get one of the limited number of camp sites. On the coast one of the requirements is that you keep all food and garbage (along with anything else that smells) in a bear canister. They had no shortage of canisters for rental at the Olympic National Park Wilderness Information Center.
The goal for the first day was to out to a beach called Yellow Banks and camp there. Yellow Banks was two miles off of the traditional Ozette Loop trail and offered no developed campsites…Perfect!
The hike out to the coast followed the Southern section of the Ozette Loop trail called the Sand Point trail. The hike was relatively easy as the majority of the 3 miles of the hike was on a board walk that is maintained by the park. Without the boardwalk much of the hike would be through deep marshes. Despite the ease of the hike, it took us quite a while seeing as all three of us had to stop every few hundred feed and photograph something.
Once we reached the coast we headed the 2 miles South to Yellow Banks. The majority of this portion of the hike involved walking a stretch of perfect beach deserted of any hikers. We only encountered seagulls feeding drinking from the fresh water creeks that empty into the Pacific Ocean.
The final part of the days hike required us to cross a headland where the path could be under as much as 5 feet of water at high tide. We entered the head land thinking the tide was going out, but as we continued on it seemed more and more like the tide was coming in. Fearing that we might get trapped, we began moving quicker and quicker as our trail turned from nice smooth beach to rock to the edge of rocks along a cliff.
At one point it appeared we were trapped with the tide coming in until James found a sea-arch (felt more like a cave) that allowed us to continue on. The sea arch was barely big enough to fit though and required climbing on all fours through seaweed and slime with water dripping down from above, then coming out on the other side find waves crashing up. But from there it was just another hundred yards to the high tide point on the beach at Yellow Banks.
At Yellow Banks we were one of only two parties camping on a stretch of a mile and a half of beach. After our experience with the high tide we decided to pick a campsite just off of the beach.
We had chosen to camp at Yellow Banks because it was one of the few locations in the immediate area where you could have a camp fire, and the ideal of camping on the beach required sitting around a campfire sipping good scotch and watching the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.
The next morning the hike out of Yellow Banks was quite a bit easier, as the tide was out a ways.
As we crossed the headland we found that the path ahead involved hiking through rotting seaweed, with sand fleas jumping all around, and flies buzzing all over the place. At times the seaweed was knee deep. Shortly after I took this picture of James he managed to take a header into the seaweed.
Eventually we got back to Sand Point, where we took a break to climb onto a large rock and watch whales. In this very cropped photo, you can see a bald eagle on the rock, and behind him, out in the ocean is the spout of a grey whale. (I really need a bigger lens).
From Sand Point, we headed up the beach. The scenery was never boring.
Before we could reach our campsite for the second night we had to cross a headland at a place called Wedding Rocks where there are several (very well photographed) petroglyphs left on a rock by someone from a time before there were white settlers in this area.
Wedding Rocks is one of the headlands that is impassible at high tide, but there is an overland route to use at high tide. The route is rather rugged, involving using ropes to cross the steeper parts of the trail. I had read so much about this, that I decided we needed to take this route, even though the tide was plenty low enough to cross the headland along the beach. James wasn’t so interested in this route though.
Upon crossing the headland we were greeted by a great blue heron feeding on sand fleas (I assume).
But when we tried to get closer to take a better picture, he flew off….
Another mile of hiking on the beach and we were at our campsite for the second night, Cape Alava.
As we sat resting in the shade at our campsite, bambi wandered right up to us. If we had offered him a hand full of grass and leaves, I’m sure he would have eaten out of our hand.
At Cape Alava we met up with some friends who were taking the same hike as we did (only in reverse direction). Again we enjoyed a campfire on the beach and a bottle of scotch as we watch another amazing sunset. Here you can see the seagulls flying as the sun sets next to Ozette Island.
After the sun had set, we watched the stars come out. They seemed especially bright with the new moon. As it grew darker, and the camp fire began to die down, we heard strange noises coming from our campsite. We grabbed our flashlights and headed off to investigate.
We found at least 8 raccoons had invaded our campsite and found a bear canister that hadn’t been closed. Then raccoons managed to get off with a bag of cashews and a couple packets of hot chocolate.
The next morning we said good bye to our friends and headed back to Lake Ozette and the car.
Yes, I freely admit this was not a difficult hike. But when you have a tripod strapped to your backpack you don’t want to have to hike very far.
A long drive, and we arrived at the ferry to take us home from the Olympic Peninsula. The ferry was really late, but that allowed us to get to see one last sunset from the ferry.
Every year I manage to make several trips to one or more of these great parks, and at least once a year I try and do a multi-day backpacking trip in one of these parks; this year the park of choice was Olympic National Park. Along with glaciated peaks and temperate rain forests, Olympic National Park also has 70+ miles of some of the most primitive coast line in the lower 48, with much of it only accessible by foot. It was on this primitive coast line of Olympic National Park that this year’s backpacking trip was planned. The trip included myself, my buddy James, and my brother-in-law Dan.
I decided to keep it easy since none of us had never hiked on the coast (which I had been told was far different than much of the hiking I had done in the mountains). The hike was a modified version of the Ozette Loop Trail. The Ozette loop trail is a easy 9 mile hike involving hiking 3 miles from Lake Ozette to the coast on a trail, then 3 miles on the coast then 3 miles back to Lake Ozette on a different trail (we added an additional 4 miles to the coast hiking part). Many people will camp at Lake Ozette and do the hike as a day hike, but we wanted to camp on the beach.
Our trip started off with a 6 am departure time to catch a ferry out to the Olympic Peninsula. The drive was a very scenic one, even crossing the hood canal bridge was a scenic event as the bridge disappeared into the fog with the far side hidden from view.
After a short drive we reached the town of Port Angles where we picked up our back country permits from the park head quarters. All backcountry camping in Olympic National Park requires permits and for many areas you need to make reservations in order to get one of the limited number of camp sites. On the coast one of the requirements is that you keep all food and garbage (along with anything else that smells) in a bear canister. They had no shortage of canisters for rental at the Olympic National Park Wilderness Information Center.
The goal for the first day was to out to a beach called Yellow Banks and camp there. Yellow Banks was two miles off of the traditional Ozette Loop trail and offered no developed campsites…Perfect!
The hike out to the coast followed the Southern section of the Ozette Loop trail called the Sand Point trail. The hike was relatively easy as the majority of the 3 miles of the hike was on a board walk that is maintained by the park. Without the boardwalk much of the hike would be through deep marshes. Despite the ease of the hike, it took us quite a while seeing as all three of us had to stop every few hundred feed and photograph something.
Once we reached the coast we headed the 2 miles South to Yellow Banks. The majority of this portion of the hike involved walking a stretch of perfect beach deserted of any hikers. We only encountered seagulls feeding drinking from the fresh water creeks that empty into the Pacific Ocean.
The final part of the days hike required us to cross a headland where the path could be under as much as 5 feet of water at high tide. We entered the head land thinking the tide was going out, but as we continued on it seemed more and more like the tide was coming in. Fearing that we might get trapped, we began moving quicker and quicker as our trail turned from nice smooth beach to rock to the edge of rocks along a cliff.
At one point it appeared we were trapped with the tide coming in until James found a sea-arch (felt more like a cave) that allowed us to continue on. The sea arch was barely big enough to fit though and required climbing on all fours through seaweed and slime with water dripping down from above, then coming out on the other side find waves crashing up. But from there it was just another hundred yards to the high tide point on the beach at Yellow Banks.
At Yellow Banks we were one of only two parties camping on a stretch of a mile and a half of beach. After our experience with the high tide we decided to pick a campsite just off of the beach.
We had chosen to camp at Yellow Banks because it was one of the few locations in the immediate area where you could have a camp fire, and the ideal of camping on the beach required sitting around a campfire sipping good scotch and watching the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.
The next morning the hike out of Yellow Banks was quite a bit easier, as the tide was out a ways.
As we crossed the headland we found that the path ahead involved hiking through rotting seaweed, with sand fleas jumping all around, and flies buzzing all over the place. At times the seaweed was knee deep. Shortly after I took this picture of James he managed to take a header into the seaweed.
Eventually we got back to Sand Point, where we took a break to climb onto a large rock and watch whales. In this very cropped photo, you can see a bald eagle on the rock, and behind him, out in the ocean is the spout of a grey whale. (I really need a bigger lens).
From Sand Point, we headed up the beach. The scenery was never boring.
Before we could reach our campsite for the second night we had to cross a headland at a place called Wedding Rocks where there are several (very well photographed) petroglyphs left on a rock by someone from a time before there were white settlers in this area.
Wedding Rocks is one of the headlands that is impassible at high tide, but there is an overland route to use at high tide. The route is rather rugged, involving using ropes to cross the steeper parts of the trail. I had read so much about this, that I decided we needed to take this route, even though the tide was plenty low enough to cross the headland along the beach. James wasn’t so interested in this route though.
Upon crossing the headland we were greeted by a great blue heron feeding on sand fleas (I assume).
But when we tried to get closer to take a better picture, he flew off….
Another mile of hiking on the beach and we were at our campsite for the second night, Cape Alava.
As we sat resting in the shade at our campsite, bambi wandered right up to us. If we had offered him a hand full of grass and leaves, I’m sure he would have eaten out of our hand.
At Cape Alava we met up with some friends who were taking the same hike as we did (only in reverse direction). Again we enjoyed a campfire on the beach and a bottle of scotch as we watch another amazing sunset. Here you can see the seagulls flying as the sun sets next to Ozette Island.
After the sun had set, we watched the stars come out. They seemed especially bright with the new moon. As it grew darker, and the camp fire began to die down, we heard strange noises coming from our campsite. We grabbed our flashlights and headed off to investigate.
We found at least 8 raccoons had invaded our campsite and found a bear canister that hadn’t been closed. Then raccoons managed to get off with a bag of cashews and a couple packets of hot chocolate.
The next morning we said good bye to our friends and headed back to Lake Ozette and the car.
Yes, I freely admit this was not a difficult hike. But when you have a tripod strapped to your backpack you don’t want to have to hike very far.
A long drive, and we arrived at the ferry to take us home from the Olympic Peninsula. The ferry was really late, but that allowed us to get to see one last sunset from the ferry.
Andrew
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
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Sounds like you might be up for the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island next - a bit more strenuous...
Thanks for sharing these
ann
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Thanks for the compliments!
The West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island is a goal of mine, I would love to do the entire stretch. Maybe someday, if I can ever manage to build up enough vacation.
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
scotch. Nice combo!
ian
Fred
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I've read a few books and drooled over some photos, but that hike is well beyond my capabilty. It was nice to see some photos of the area and I'm sure it took a lot longer with three photographers than it would ordinarily. Some of that hiking sounds sort of dangerous too... I know from slimy kelp! And those flies -- UGH...... pesty critters.
http://www.twitter.com/deegolden
Yes. It was a blast! The Washington Coast is traditionally known for bad weather, so up until the last minute we were prepared with a back-up plan of a 3-day Washington State brewery tour. Luckily we had 3 amazing days without a cloud in the sky which is very unusual especially for September.
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
Actually this I think this is probably one of the easiest hikes in the state. The trails out to the coast are all on board walks. When the tide is out, its super easy to hike on the beach. The thing to remember, is that if the tide comes in, just find a comfortable spot and sit and wait for it to go out. Being 3 guys who were trying to prove something to each other, we kept hiking when we should have been sitting and enjoying the sun.
Also, this is a great day hike. Camp at Lake Ozette and hike in with nothing more than some water and your lunch (and maybe a rain coat).
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
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i took a similar, but longer and more arduous hike many, many years ago, from Cape Alava to LaPush. i didn't have a camera then, and would likely not have taken it if i had; it was a "survival" hike with the Boy Scouts, and we were only allowed to bring certain items. but i still recall some of the scenery out there... one of these days, i need to go back with my cameras and get some photos out there.
oh, FYI - the heron was probably looking for fish in the tide pools. GBH's eat almost anything they can catch, but the prefer fish, frogs, etc. they wouldn't waste time on sand fleas...
"Out where the rivers like to run, I stand alone, and take back something worth remembering..."
Three Dog Night
www.northwestnaturalimagery.com
I had all but forgotten about this trip...and now (despite the fact it's December) I'm wanting to plan another coastal hike for 2009!
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
My Photo Gallery:Northern Focus Photography
I wish I was half the man that my dog thinks I am...
Thank you for the comments.
It took me 35 years of living in the PNW before I managed to get around to doing this. After the hike we all swore we would do it again as soon as possible (you'll note I posted the pictures over 2 years ago
I should also mention that I was EXTREMELY lucky to get the weather I got in September.
initialphotography.smugmug.com
"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera" - Dorothea Lange
There's also a beautiful multi-day hike south of the West Coast Trail in the provicial park. I spent three nights on it but you could probably do it in two. Can't remember the name for the life of me, but it's just south of Torfino (where the West Coast Trail is north of town).
Portland, Oregon Photographer Pete Springer
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Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos and the detailed trail report. I am currently planning on doing a stretch of the Olympic Coast from Shi Shi beach to Rialto in the first week of August. This information both helped me research a little bit before hand and build up my excitement.
As I am doing my research I was trying to figure out if there was a fresh water source at Yellow Banks. I cannot seem to find one on any maps and any mention of one in any trail reports. Since you have been there before I was wondering if you could share your insight?
Thanks so much and keep up the beautiful work,
K