Our adventure began on the Fourth of July. My good friend, Eric, and I flew west to Seattle, where we met friends, Chris and Corinne, for a four-day, three-night hike on the isolated and unspoiled beaches of the Pacific coast in Olympic National Park. All Points Charters & Tours, run by naturalist and wildlife biologist Willie Nelson, shuttled us from the trail head to the wild, rugged shoreline. Along the way, he told us about the trail we would be hiking and shared stories of the Indian tribes who lived in the park. Willie said some hikers think it will just be a trek along the beach, but it really isn’t.
We set out from Rialto Beach with high spirits and great enthusiasm as we headed north. The first five miles posed no problems, outside of heavy packs loaded with four days of food and a lot of camera equipment. Communing with nature is it’s own high, and we were relishing every minute. None of us had ever spent the night on a beach with the tide. We chose our first campsite very carefully, lest we get washed away in the night.
Willie was right. The trail was far from ordinary, and it challenged each of us to stretch our limits. What began as a firm, sandy beach gradually changed to a rocky beach, then morphed into a stony beach that nearly ate us up! With 60-pound packs, we began to sink—as if we were walking in eight inches of snow. But it was rocks the size of footballs and basketballs, then boulders way bigger than me! We almost had to rock climb some of that beach. Then we had to detour to avoid a stretch of coastline impassable at high tide. The path went up and was set with ropes to maneuver the steep terrain.
What a wonderful adventure it was! We built our campfires on wild, pristine beaches and fell asleep listening to the waves wash the sand. Everyone should have the opportunity to experience wild America.
Thank you, Eric, for sharing the adventure. Thank you, Chris and Corinne, for your friendship, planning the logistics, and sharing your home as base camp. Hugs, kisses, and love to my wife, Ginger, for giving me the opportunity to do what I love—along with the plane ticket as a birthday gift.
Start at Rialto Beach
Yellow Banks Camp site
One year Anniversary Portrait at Wedding Rock
Shi Shi Beach
