HEY THERE!
Looking for the sentimental exciting (maybe boring?) stuff from our trip to the PNW?! Check out THIS post for all the feels regarding this trip.
Looking for more posts related to this trip? Click below:
- Marymere Falls
- HOH Rainforest
- Seattle Day 1
- Seattle Day 2
- Olympic Peninsula Day 1
- Olympic Peninsula Day 2
- Gas Works Park
For those of you strictly interested in Rialto Beach info, here you go:
GPS: 47.921225, -124.638120 TIME: 2 HOURS LENGTH: 3 MILES
SUPER IMPORTANT!!!
- CHECK TIDES!!!
- Please make sure you check the tide charts to ensure a successful visit. We were up before sunrise to make it to Rialto by low tide. Parts of the beach are impassable if the tide is in.
- Now… back to your regularly scheduled program 🙂
GETTING THERE
From Port Angeles my sister Diana and I drove west on the 101 for 52 miles. That was about an hour-long. Then we turned right on 110 and drove west for just under 8 miles. And then another right on Mora Rd for another 5 miles. It was super easy to find. I downloaded an offline map from google maps right to my phone as I knew I wouldn’t have service. Your cell phone provider should have maps online of where you have coverage. Total trip takes about an hour and a half if you’re not stopping for pictures at Lake Crescent.
The further west we drove the colder it got. The snow and ice were more present.
And then, after driving through 5 miles of beautiful snow-covered trees the ocean appeared. The formations in the distance in this picture are from across the Quillayute River. They are A-Ka-Lat (James Island) and Little James Island. Great read on that HERE directly from the Quileute Nation website.
RIALTO BEACH
When you arrive to the beach you’ll see these two signs posted, you made it to the beach! Turn right and you’ll find parking, a pit toilet (very clean!) and some signage regarding the area.
“The sea makes the rules”
We parked across from the pit toilet because we knew we were heading north on the beach. You can cross the massive driftwood right away towards the ocean and make a right once on the sand to begin. We chose to walk through the designated picnic area first and then cross the driftwood.
We walked north approximately an hour on the beach. We thought we were the only ones there because there were no cars in the lot. Turns out there was another pair walking around too. We found two sets of small prints, seemingly from earlier in the morning amongst our fresher set.
There’s also something to be said about the sand/rocks we were walking on. Since day’s first light hadn’t hit the beach yet it was very crunchy. Ice was holding the stones together and it actually helped with walking.
We reached Ellen Creek. We crossed and there are definitely parts that are deeper than they look. I’m talking entire foot and ankles deep. Really glad my sister and I planned for this and had appropriate footwear. The rest of the hike would not have been as much fun.
After walking 1.5 miles, we made it to these GIGANTIC stacks. They’re so large they don’t seem so far, but it took us just about 45 mins to reach them.
The hole-in-the-wall can be seen in the following picture. Never having hiked with keeping tides in mind we chose not to add the extra half mile (RT) to the hole. We were already concerned with the tide creeping in through the stacks in the time we were there.
On our way back towards the car we found the beach sublime! (Sorry terrible attempt at using sublimation in a joke to describe the picture below).
We also found Ellen Creek a little deeper.
I hope this was helpful and informative! I’ll leave some pretty nice pics we grabbed here. Feel free to send me a message or comment if you have any questions about Rialto Beach. I will do my best to answer them 🙂 When you have some time to spare and are interested in seeing what else we did in the PNW, you can read about it HERE.
I could never stay long enough on the shore. The tang of the untainted, fresh and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought, and the shells and pebbles and the seaweed with tiny living creatures attached to it never lost their fascination for me.
-Helen Keller
