Day 12, 2018-09-22: Six Beaches and a Tree

Yesterday, we fell asleep to the sound of raindrops hitting the roof of our car. The sound got lighter in the morning, but it was still rainy, and when we finally decided to get up, it started to rain heavily again. The forecast didn’t look well either. I little lake had formed around our car and I had to apply my bouldering skills to retrieve my boots from the front. However, the coastal rain forest we woke up in was worth any struggles.

We had to cook our porridge outside wearing our rain jackets and we ate inside the car while watching YouTube videos again, just like yesterday night. The Three Rivers Resort campsite provided the best WiFi so far.

Around 11:00, we followed the La Push Road to check out some beaches. They were numbered. We started with the third, because there was a little trail through the forest on the map. It was longer than expected and gave us another taste of the beauty of the local woods with their huge trees and tiny creatures.

The forest ended where the beach began – nothing in-between.

And there it was, the Pacific Ocean. It always feels like a major milestone to stand at the shore of the sea. I’m not quite sure why, maybe because unlike artificial or mental borders between countries it is an actual physical end to a piece of land.

Back in the car we continued to La Push at the end of the road for a quick photo session of the shore and James Island.

The beach tour continued and we drove back to the Mora Road junction, where we started the day, to go to Rialto Beach. La Push and Rialto Beach are south and north of the outlet of the Quillayute River into the Pacific Ocean, but there is no bridge, hence the drive. You can actually look over to La Push and see another view of the island in front of it.

We observed many fishermen standing in the surf with their fishing poles, but never witnessed a catch.

The road back to Forks brought us onto the 101, which we followed south until it reached the shore again and passed Ruby Beach.

We took a turn left from the 101 to gaze at a giant Cedar tree in the coastal forest. That picture along the drive falls into the “instant regret” category. It took me some time to clean the camera from the mud.

But I had to, as I needed to photograph that huge tree.

The next quick stop was Kalaloch beach.

After five beaches and a tree, it had gotten late already and we looked for a camp site online, either at the beach or the inland Quinault Lake that was next on our list. There were only primitive campsites, i.e. without showers, in reach but we figured we can manage. We had enough water with us. We drove to the South Beach campground down the 101. There were still some unoccupied spots on the self check-in board, so we took one. They had flush toilets, but no potable water at all. It was the simplest campsite so far and we were hesitant about staying.