Rialto Beach and Hole-in-the-Wall — Sunday, Aug. 7, 2005

Olympic Peninsula > Pacific Coast

I thought that going on a cloudy weekday meant avoiding the crowds. let's just say that i would hate to go there on a sunny weekend! There were many many overnight campers on the beach and leave-no-trace policy was being boldly ignored. some people had carved their names into the trees! we left seattle monday morning and took the non-ferry south-west-north-west route (just to see how long it took. basically, take the ferry unless you anticipate very long waits. it is 45 min faster than just taking the roads). left at 7:15 Am and arrived at the beach parking lot at 11:45 AM. started walking on the beach. the tide was coming in as we were hiking in so it meant a bit of difficult scrambling on the rocks. past the hole-in-the-wall it was pretty stinky with all the seaweed washed in and weird hop-hop flies swarming all around. while we were taking a short break on the rocks, 5 bold racoons made a bid for our animal-resistant canister (they totally know what to go for) and even yelling barely deterred them. saw a deer near the chilean memorial. camped out there in a nice little spot. at dusk saw a group of otter come in and play omn the rocks and swim around. VERY cute. also saw seals, giant heron?, and weird creature, little bigger than a squirrel, dark brown with white markings and white tail running aorund on the beacch screaming hysterically and stopping periodically to stare at us, willing us to go to bed so it could raid our campsite for food. weather was misty-wet, never actually rained. but the ocean was pretty fantastic as usual!