Olympic National Park, part 2

The weather cleared nicely as we settled into Forks, WA, so I convinced Steve to visit Rialto Beach for sunset. This beach, along with a number of others in the area, are part of the Olympic Wilderness Coast region of the national park. Rialto Beach is known for its giant drift logs…

… black stone beach …

… and pounding surf.

I really enjoyed watching the sunset and the squadrons of pelicans making their last forays over the water in search of a bedtime snack. They were out in full force the next day when we revisited the beach…

… to check out the Hole in the Wall at low tide. First we checked out the sea stacks…

(did you notice the Hole in the Wall?)

… that on further inspection were quite different than when viewed from afar -

The life in the tidepools was colorful and interesting…

… especially to me to see that anemones can survive out of the water during low tide

I got the requisite picture of Hole in the Wall…

… but without any posing Instagrammers.

The next morning was cloudy and spitting light rain, so when better to visit Hoh Rainforest (another section of the national park)? There were amazing amounts of draping mosses…

… myriad types of ferns…

… and several waterways -

There were nurse trees that allowed a row of giants to get a great start…

(can you see where the trunks and roots straddle the nurse tree?)

… and places where nurse trees had disappeared -

I was mesmerized by all the furry trees -

(This picture may look a bit distorted because I used a wide angle to try and get in all the trees in this pretty dell.)

The afternoon skies were clear as we visited a few beaches, all part of the Olympic Wilderness Coast. First up was Ruby Beach…

… so named for the sea glass and agates found there, as well as the minerals in the sand that supposedly give it a reddish cast. We found neither treasures nor red sand (it just looked gray to us).

We moved further south to Kalaloch Beach where there is a Sitka Spruce that has been dubbed The Tree of Life for its gravity defying root system just barely holding on.

So that’s it, for all the different regions of Olympic NP. Which was your favorite part?