Rialto Beach

 August 24, 2020 Monday

We cooked a big and hearty breakfast in the Inn's kitchen and left the Inn about 10:00 headed for Rialto Beach. We retraced our drive from the prior day, north briefly on 101 and then west for several miles on 110. However today instead of the failed attempt to proceed on 110 to La Push, we turned on to Mora Road. On the way to Rialto Beach we crossed the Sol Duc and Dickey Rivers while frequently paralleling the Quillayute River which flows into the Pacific and passed . It also separates Rialto Beach, a/k/a Mora, from La Push. The scenery along the drive was scrub forest until we neared the coast, when the landscape turned to thicker forests with tall trees. It was about a 30 minute drive.

The road ended in a parking lot that was pretty crowded, but not full. There were picnic tables, water and restrooms at the parking lot. There was a short paved trail which took us over the dune and out to the beach. This was not a shoes off, sand between you toes beach. Rocky, and fairly wide at what seemed to be medium tide, there were lots of drift logs, some of them very large and others clustered together as if they were park of a child's pick-up-sticks game. Lots of gulls squawking and other sea birds patrolling the sky while the waves crashed and at times we were sprinkled with sea spray. Our view was immediately commanded by off shore rocks known as sea stacks which rose vertically out of the ocean. Behind us were towering trees and a lush undergrowth.

 

We decided to head north along the beach to Hole-in-the-Wall, a large rock formation, a sea carved arch. However the trail was along the beach and the tide was coming in so it became increasingly difficult to navigate the trail. Instead we turned around and headed south. We climbed among the driftwood, watched dogs romp in the water and I took a brief dip into the waves. After taking a break at a picnic table to eat the lunch we had prepared, we walked almost to the southern end of the beach From there we could see across the river to La Push and First Beach.

 

By the late afternoon we had finished our stroll and we returned to the Inn. I again parked the car behind the Inn and plugged in. We cooked dinner and ate on the balcony watching the sun set. Ate too much ice cream.