Rialto Beach, Olympic Nat'l Park April 22, 2015

April April 22  Rialto Beach

Woke early and did the short drive to Rialto Beach where we have breakfast and then “hit the beach”.  Our target is a 1 ½ mile North Wilderness Coast Hike to a formation called Hole In The Wall, an arch with many sea stacks and rocks.  Low tide is at 10AM and we set out about 9:00. It is cold and windy so we've bundled up and Greg is carrying boots in a backpack should we need them.

Tons of logs and driftwood along the rocky shore and thousands of some kind of blue sea creatures. 

They are oval shaped, mostly around an inch or two in length, with a bright blue base and a kind of translucent “sail”.  Many mark the tide line and many float in the water.  They are slippery to walk on. We later learn that they are referred to as jelly fish, though they do not have any self-propulsion and merely float on the water with their "sail" and are not really jelly fish.  Some years they are rarely seen but this year this beach has a bumper crop.  The ones that wash ashore die in less than a day.

As low tide is approaching we see more rocks and a few bright orange and red star fish.  We  have to walk across logs to cross Ellen Creek (not Beth’s forte) and finally reach the Hole in the Wall and the rocky tide pools.

  We clamber around, spotting star fish, anemones, snails, barnacles, shells and other creatures.  Various grasses and seaweed, some live and some washed ashore.  These baby star fish (or are they called sea stars?) were brilliant.

We pick up some more interesting stones on the walk back.  Not too busy, we pass about a dozen other folks along the way. Three quarters of the way back we begin to shed some layers of coats and hats as the sun is shining and the wind has died down.

We continue to drive through Olympic Park and past Lake Crescent where we run into a light rain.  We stop at Port Angeles to check out the ferry schedule for tomorrow.  They tell us we can park in the que overnight, so that’s what we plan.  But first we make the drive to Hurricane Ridge at 5,242’.  Back to the mountains! Quite a climb and as we get higher the fog is rolling in, making for interesting scenery, or lack thereof. 

We see black-tailed deer at several places and patches of snow.

There are several glaciers around Mt. Olympus  at the center of the park and they, like the ones in Alaska, are dwindling.  They have lost 30% of their size since 1970.  Stopped at Hurricane Ridge and walked a bit but it is cold and windy and the welcome center there hasn’t opened for the season yet.   We do an about-face and go back  down to the Ferry Terminal in Port Angeles.

There is a huge drilling rig on a ship in their harbor.  Apparently it is en route to Alaska and there have been several days of protests, though we don’t see any.  Just a few Coast Guard ships guarding it.  Nearby traffic slows and we have a relatively quiet night.