Rialto and 3rd Beach Near La Push

We are on an adventure on the Olympic Peninsula. We've hired a house near the very small town of La Push for the entire family. Today we tooks Seamus and Charlie to Rialto Beach in the morning for a look about. Naturally, I tried my hand at a few photographs.



Even though it was late morning when we arrived, it was still foggy with a mist over the Pacific Ocean. Along this section of shore line there are many dead trees. Not quite sure why, but there they are.

There are several small island off-shore. This is the largest one.

This is another rendition of the first image above. These small rocks, I'll not dignify them by calling them islands, add to the interest of the rocky beach.

With the large-ish island to the south of the beach, looking north, we see more smaller ones just past the point of land that closes off the beach in that direction.

Here's an unobstructed view of the larger island(s) to the south. the clouds and fog were beginning to lift a bit, so there is some blue sky showing through.

We left the beach and drove into beautiful downtown La Push, consisting of one restaurant and nearly nothing else, for a noonday meal. The River's Edge Restaurant served us a find meal of salmon burgers, fried clam strips, and club sandwich. I recommend it when you visit.

After lunch, Seth and I separated from the rest of our extended family and we headed out for the 3rd beach (the 1st beach is nearest La Push, the 2nd beach is a bit farther south, and the 3rd beach is the southernmost. Turns out that that the 3rd beach is the longest walk from the car park (hence, our separation from the family). It is 1.4 miles from the road. Along the way, we found this interesting fungus on the side of a dead tree.

Even though it was early afternoon when we embarked on this trip, arriving at the beach we found another fog rolling from the sea.

This is a very different beach from our moning visit. Aside from the lack of large-ish island offshore, this is a place where we find backpackers on their way too or from elsewhere, and campers that pitched their tents on the beach. Seems like a harsh and a bit boring place to spend much time.

But the smaller rocks along the shore are interesting. The razor clams and barnacles make a nice decoration on the nearest rock.

The long exposures give the breaking water near the rock the expect milky smoothness. With the foggy sky and loss of a clear horizon line as a result, everything just merges together into a uncertain sea with few fixed points.

Looking back toward shore, we see the edge of the forest we walked through blurred out by the fog. 'Twas an invigorating walk through a disturbingly quiet forest to get to the beach. We may have heard or seen two birds in the roughly hour long round trip. Crazy to be in a forest that long and really hear...nothing!

Tomorrow, we are off to see a little of the Hoh Rainforest. With any luck and the ability to not fall asleep when we get back, I'll have a fresh post about the second leg of our adventure tomorrow. If not then, then the next day.