Rialto & Third Beach

What a great way to begin a hike! We pulled into the parking lot of Rialto Beach, one of the wilderness coast beaches protected in Olympic National Park, and met Joe and Bob who were jamming and enjoying making music together, something they have been doing since high school in 1963. They grew up together in New Jersey but now Joe lives in Arizona and Bob in Seattle.

They sounded good! Years of practice, I guess.

It was a mere 200 feet to the beach.

Seastacks

Walking the beach was difficult as it was composed of small black pebbles.

We walked a mile down the beach to Ellen Creek which was too deep to cross at the beach outlet. Further up the creek were jammed logs that younger, more agile hikers were able to use to cross the creek. We decided to turn back.

Two views of...

seastacks.

Lunch spot.

Lunch view.

We then drove to the La Push Area and hiked the 1.4 mile trail to Third Beach.

Third Beach has a sandy beach which is much easier to walk on.

We walked east on the beach to the headland that had a waterfall with...

seastacks off to the south.

Walking back up the beach, west.

Backward glance at the seastacks.

Now, about Forks. Perhaps some of you know this already, that Forks is the location of the Twilight books series. I have never read any of the books but I do know that they are about vampires. 

Maybe we'll learn more when we go into the downtown area of Forks.

Today's hikes:

Length - 5.32 miles

Duration - 2 hours, 50 minutes

Elevation gain - 380 feet (38 floors on the Fitbit)