Bottom Line:

Surf (and surfers!), towering trees, endless sand, sea stacks, reflections, seals and eagles... the beauty of Shi Shi and Point of Arches beach hiking in the winter! I had forgotten how beautiful this beach is. We had planned to do Ozette Triangle, but the low tide was not quite low enough to navigate all the headlands by beach, so we decided on Shi Shi instead, where even at all but the highest of tides (e.g. King) the beach is navigable. The approach was very muddy, but fine with waterproof hiking boots. It was a day of making fresh footprints in the smooth sand. Bliss.

Stats:

• Distance: 8 miles (combined)
• Vertical: 850 ft
• Duration: ~ 4 hours
• Road/Parking: For Shi Shi, parked at the Fish Hatchery trailhead where there is room for about 10 cars. Makeh Recreation Pass required (available at the minimart in Neah Bay, and good for a year). There was a Makah gate checking for recreation passes on the road out to Cape Flattery. The Cape parking lot is large - room for dozens of cars. While not as busy as the summer, it was much busier than Shi Shi. As always, the drive along the Strait to Neah Bay was beautiful - always reminds me of the Road to Hana in Maui.
• Weather: Partly cloudy, warm (50Fs, but felt warmer in the sun), light wind, robust surf, lovely sky which made it easier to take pictures into the sun, which is inevitable in the winter with the sun so low on the horizon.
• Trail: The access trail is ~2 miles, starts with elevated boardwalks (slippery), and ends in a (very) muddy road-to-trail conversion to the boundary of Olympic National Park. There are side trails to avoid some of the deepest mud bogs, although we took one extended detour that ended up being quite the bushwack, and was probably not really worth the mud avoided (although a good workout!) Some down trees, a couple tricky to get over for shorter hikers. Shi Shi was quiet and the tide as little high for the tide pools, but the surf and headlands were spectacular! Seals and eagles. The beach near the surf line was hard and flat - easy for walking. Dogs are not permitted in the park. We hiked out before sunset and drove over to Cape Flattery for a quick hike (~1-1/2 miles RT) down to the point. The horizon was cloudy, but the sky an interesting grey/purple as the sun set. The Cape was very busy... quite the difference from Shi Shi.
• Takeaway: A WA treasure... so incredibly beautiful, and I think feels more so in the winter when quiet and peaceful. The beach was pristine, with one group picking up the little trash they could find. This is a good spot for winter camping, and a number of folks were heading in as we hiked out. Worth exploring to the right as you enter the beach, where one can climb the headland (with a rope assist to the very top), and find a secluded bay on the opposite side.

Higher resolution pics are available at the Instagram link below, as well as embedded in the video. The video highlights the beautiful surf and wave action.

Got to the lot at 9am on a sunny holiday Friday, only a few cars were there. Lots of muddy and slippery bits, so very grateful for my waterproof boots! Keep an eye out for the less-muddy side paths.

Beach was breathtaking - glad we made it before the clouds rolled back in. Back at car by 12:20pm.

hiked out to shi shi beach.. only a few spots to avoid muck and mud and those were not bad.. especially compared to last year's hike at same time. last year there had been an inch of rain two days before the hike and you could not avoid the much and mud. water everywhere.   the trail is 2.2 miles from trailhead and then you go down the 120 ft vertical bluff trail.  there were camping spots in the forest and there was an outhouse with tp--near the bluff trail.. we did not go further down the beach. 

the overnight parking is about 1/2 mile from the trailhead. the payment system is a bit confusing cause the signs are faded and not clear. my husband said he went around the back of the house and put a payment in a box. 

a few mosquitos were on the trail and the trailhead. the trailhead has nice outhouses.  We saw many unprepared people walking the trail--no packs, no jackets, no water bottles and not sturdy shoes. 

the signage is good on the road to trailhead. when you get the recreation pass at the visitor center, they give you a nice small map of the town. the pass is $20 and you put it on the dash or rear view mirror.  

we were planning to camp but ended up hiking out.  we are slow and so it took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to hike out. the first 2/3 of the trail have some boardwalk.  

We started halfway through the North Coast Route, at Ozette Ranger Station, and finished a couple of days later at Shi Shi beach. This was the first coastal hike for anyone in our party, so we were relieved not to commit to the full distance, but if this is a first for you as well, don’t be deterred; adequate planning and other hiking experience should be enough for you to hike all of the way from Rialto to Shi Shi, if you choose.

Overall, this is a hike so radically unlike any others we have done before. As this is a route, rather than a trail, progress is a considerate process where the leader must find solid and stiff ground to walk along. Tidal restrictions along the route forced us to shape our plans around the whims of the tides, which practically feels similar to avoiding rush hour gridlock; often progress remains possible during medium and high tides, but is much faster at low tide.

Most importantly, the intersection of the ocean and the rainforest made these 20 miles of beach feel at once magical and alien. In four days I saw more variety and abundance of wildlife than I may have seen in all of the rest of my hiking combined. We saw bears, otters, chipmunks, gulls, birds of prey, corvids, seals (live and dead), urchins, jellyfish, starfish, crabs, and plenty more I don’t have names for. After the first night, we spent the entire trip shrouded in mist with the endless ocean to our left and the forest or bluffs to our right, each day discovering unique sights and land forms.

This was my first time camping on the beach, and I am a new fan. Don’t worry about finding a nice, level clearing; everywhere on the sand is perfect, and easy to clean. The ground is soft and easy to level (if not level enough already). There is, however, one big caveat: sand gets everywhere. Take care of your gear because the sand will damage everything soft and hard. Joints (like in multitool hinges) and poles (like tentpoles and telescoping trekking poles) can jam while soft materials (bags, clothes, tent fabrics) will wear down.

The abundance of beach logs guarantees seating, but we all packed chairs and I recommend it. The mercy of the tides means many hours each day seated, and the extra comfort is worth the weight. A tarp should be considered as well, to create shade in the absence of tree cover.

Don’t be fooled by the lack of elevation gain. Despite the flat terrain, walking in sand is slow and tiring in the best case, exhausting in the worst, and still better than tiptoeing along slick tidal boulderfields. Well-timed, hikers can take advantage of the stiff, wet sand revealed by the low tide.

Tide forecasts are a must for this hike, but we found that we didn’t need the chart on the trail, and only really used it when planning months in advance. Day-to-day, tide patterns are approximately the same each day, so a good trip will include generous low tides during the time of day your party prefers to hike. We rescheduled this trip by a week in order to guarantee we could make fast morning progress, and in retrospect we’re glad we did. Review tides early in the planning stages, not while you’re breaking camp.

We spent three nights on this hike. The first day was short and we headed three miles Southwest from the Ozette Ranger Station to Sand Point. Sand Point hosts a small creek which supposedly runs dry in late summer, but we found it reliable in late August. It is also the target of some local bears, who were unfazed by the presence of campers. Within minutes of our arrival, I turned around to see one crossing our path only ten feet behind our last hiker. Listen to the rangers, and use a bear canister.

The second day we awoke early and headed up the beach for our first day of coast hiking. We left right at the apex of low tide, and went as fast as we could to hopefully ford the Ozette River before it became unsafe to do so. This area is beautiful, and the timing is more forgiving than we knew, so we should have slowed down and admired the tide pools around Wedding Rocks and the majesty of Tskawahyah Island. We let out a sigh of relief when we saw the Ozette River, switched into our sandals (bring sandals), and stopped for lunch as soon as we crossed, but other hikers continued fording long after us, including one hiker who was in hip-level water.

After a few hours awaiting the tides, we proceeded up the coast to Seafield Creek for the second night of camp. This is a smaller site and does not host a privy (bring a shovel, pack out used paper), but is popular as the first site south of Point of the Arches.

The next morning we woke up early for what we expected to be our easy day. Although we only had 5 miles to make to Shi Shi Beach, the passage through Point of the Arches and the many features South of it were the most grueling miles of our hike. This area has the lowest tide restrictions of the North Coast route, and even when passable, these are slippery boulderfields which had us worried about safety. The overland options are generally safer and more straightforward, but not necessarily easier. Climbing onto the bluffs is very steep, and the assistive ropes are not officially maintained, but we found them to be dependable. These bypasses include scenic lookouts, be sure to take advantage of those, because the seastacks in this area are incredible.

We finally came around the last corner and found ourselves on Shi Shi Beach, where we set down at the first campsite we could find. Shi Shi is easy enough to get to as a day hike, but it is worth spending time here. We took some short day hikes later in the evening when the tide went back out, and got some photos by the arches and the caves. We headed out the next morning, and both Shi Shi and the access trail were much easier than the rest of the hike, so we took our time back to the parking lot and relaxed on the long drive off the peninsula.

This was my 5-year-old son's 6th backpacking trip, and it really knocked all out others out of the park. If you want the short version, scroll to the bottom to see my 3-minute video.

I purchased my Olympic National Park Overnight Backcountry Permit and Makah Tribe Recreation Permit both online the night before our trip. I already have an America the Beautiful pass, which covers parking for this trip.

Pre-Hike Shenanigans

We made the long drive out from Kitsap county starting Saturday morning. On our way up, we made a stop at our favorite coastal road trip pit-stop, Erickson Playfield in Port Angeles. It's about halfway to the coast for us and it's a great opportunity for the kiddos (and parents) to stretch their legs. I discovered this park on our Rialto Beach trip and it's become a destination for us.

We stopped in Neah Bay for a late lunch and ate at Calvin's Crab House. The wait was long (about 40 minutes) but the food was good. It was Makah Days in Neah Bay so perhaps the extra business increased the wait times from usual.

Forest Hike

The first 2.5 miles of the hike are forested. It is a mixture of boardwalk paths, boardwalk bridges, and root/dirt terrain. About the last mile of the trail before the descent is mud. Thankfully, there is a second path that runs parallel to the mud path so you can avoid 95% of the mud. There are a couple logs down over the alternate path but nothing that couldn't be stepped over by either my kid or me. After the mud ends there is a stair-like descent down to the beach that is equipped with a wooden handrail most of the way. After completing the stairs there is one last short wooded section before you are led through the tall grass onto the beach.

Beach Hike

If you're lucky, the tide has given you some wet compact sand to walk on instead of the fluffy stuff above the tide line. We followed the beach down all the way to the Point of Arches. We saw a lot of cool things along the way, included huge beached Lion's Mane Jellyfish, tiny beached Moon Jellies, sand pipers, pelicans, the obligatory seagulls, empty crab shells, and a variety of different types of kelp, both small and giant. The beach was busy with hikers and backpackers, but with literally miles of beach to camp on there was no worry about finding a place to camp.

Creek Intel

I had emailed the NPS prior to our hike for intel on the creeks. Petroleum Creek is flowing well, easy to gather water from and has the typical coastal brown tannin color. I gathered water here to top us off. We continued on to Willaughby Creek, which is closest to the Arches (very short walk from them) and it is still flowing, though much lighter flow. The flow was still strong enough to easily fill my Cnoc bag without effort the next morning. It also is rich in tannins. I posted a pic of it for you to see the flow of the creek. Both creeks are also shown in the video I link at the end. This was my first time drinking coastal water with tannins, and filtering it with my Sawyer Squeeze reduced the color by about half, and I found the taste to only be very faint, I barely noticed it. Some folks say it's bitter but I didn't really notice.

Point of Arches

Once we arrived at the point of arches we scoped out a campsite right near the first rock. We dropped our packs and left my Garmin tracking on as we continued through the tidepools and rock formations. We found a beached Rat Fish (Chimera) and another Lion's Mane jelly. We met someone who had caught some Surf Perch and we were amazed by the beautiful blue scales. There were some kingfishes calling from the top of one of the rock formations. We saw Aggregating Anemones and Giant Green Anemones, and Ochre Sea Stars, and tons and tons of barnacles, mussels, hermit crabs, snails, and tidepool sculpins. We returned to camp for dinner and then explored some more in the sunset.

The sky was completely cloud-free at night, so we could see plenty of stars.  I had hers the Perseid meteors were still visible but we didn't see any, however I also didn't stare for too long.

In speaking with other backpackers the next day, we heard that the Nudibranchs come out at night, and saw some pictures they had taken of some incredible, feathery looking Nudibranchs in the nighttime tidepools. Another person told us the tidepools have bioluminescence at night, especially the shallower warmer ones. I wish we had known both of those things to see for ourselves!

Low Tide (- 1 ft)

We knew to expect a minus tide at 8:30 am the next morning, so we got up early and ate breakfast and headed out right around that time. We thought the Point of Arches was incredible the evening before, but we were in for even more epic tidepools and rock formations with the minus tide. I wish I had marked how far out we went on the map but we went significantly farther than the evening before. There were SO MANY more anemones and starfish than the day before, and we even saw one solo Leather Star (all the rest were Ochre stars). Travelling through all the arches was just so breathtaking.

Return Hike

After tide-pooling we packed up and headed out around 10:30 am. The late night high-tide had washed in a dead marine mammal, at first I thought it was a harbor seal, but in hindsight it had front paws rather than flippers, and a LOT of fur, so I believe it was a sea otter. It was HUGE, maybe 4 feet long. Aside from that we didn't see much on our hike out that we didn't see on the way in.

Conclusion

This hike was absolutely incredible. It's definitely the best tidepools I have seen so far, and the arches were amazing. This was my son's (5-years) longest hike at 6 miles clocked from the parking lot to the arches + about a mile of tide-pooling. We measured 5 miles on our return hike directly from the first rock to the trailhead. My son had no complaints about the distance or the hike at all, and wants to come back again. 10/10 I highly recommend this as an overnight and taking advantage of the lowest tide possible.

No Dogs! No Fires!

Dogs are not allowed on this trail, but I saw at least two.

Olympic National Park also has a park-wide ban on any and all fires, including beach bonfires. I confirmed this with NPS via email before our trip. We saw one violator which I corrected on our hike in (they had some lame excuse and I just kept going) and we did see a few fires going at night.

Shameless Plug

I am doing the 52 hike challenge with my kids this year and these are our current stats on week 34:

Me: 42
David(5): 39
Holly(3): 33

We are also fundraising for WTA through Hike-A-Thon so please go visit our team page: https://give.wta.org/snackbreak