Today we drove out to the wild and rugged Olympic Coast and Shi Shi Beach to hike the 8 miles round trip to the Point of Arches. We had to stop at the Museum in Neah Bay to purchase the Makah Recreation Pass a permit for the trail. We arrived at the Trailhead and started our hike along the recently-rehabilitated trail for a mile winding through brushy clearcut and groves of Sitka spruce. We crossed over several bridges and boardwalks, but then the trail got messier and almost always muddy and wet. But shortly we were rewarded with the site of Shi Shi Beach.
We walked along the beach for 1.3 miles to the Point of Arches, a mile-long parade of rocky sea stacks. We wandered around the tide pools, observing the daily goings on of the resident coastal critters and relished being in one of the most scenic locations in the Northwest. We passed several campsites along the beach in the sheltered forest upslope, where we would love to come back and spend more time here to watch the sunset over the sea stack-strewn Pacific. On the way back we stopped at the small, much-too-isolated fishing village of Sekiu, WA, where we were welcomed by a carved wooden statue of the fish…….. running towards the town of Sekiu while wearing a pink bra and skirt with tennis shoes, named Rosie. We ate fish and chips at By the Bay Cafe, where we found the shorts-and-sneaker-clad running fish boy, Gil, who is probably looking for his running fish girlfriend, Rosie. Click on thumbnail to view images
Point of Arches
Cape Flattery
What a surprise when we arrived back at the RV Park and found Ron and Kristen parked near us and staying for a few days. We decided to drive to Cape Flattery with Ron and Kristen, the next day and Bob found a short-cut along logging roads that we could take to get to Cape Flattery. We rode in Ron’s jeep and it was quite a ride, after about 1 1/2 hours we arrived at the paved road only to be stopped by a large locked gate. Needless to say we had to turn around and go back to where we started, back to the paved road. Finally we arrived at Cape Flattery Trailhead. Cape Flattery Trail ends at the most northwesternly tip of the contiguous United States, where the Strait of Juan de Fuca joins the Pacific Ocean, and can be reached by an easy, short hike, most of which is board walked. At the point we could see across to the Cape Flattery Lighthouse on Tatoosh Island, just off the cape. Makah Bay and Neah Bay are on either side of the cape. The view to the north from the cape we could see Vancouver Island in the distance. On the way back we stopped at the Makah Cultural and Research Center that includes a replica long house and thousands of artifacts. Click on thumbnail to view images
