Cape Alava, Cape Alava Loop (Ozette Triangle) — Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005

Olympic Peninsula > Pacific Coast

This is a bit of a day hike if you are coming over on a ferry from the Seattle-area, but it's well worth the journey. The 3.3 mile walk to the beach is pretty uneventful, except for the wet, slippery boardwalk that consists of about 2.5 of those one-way miles. It helped that we brought our trekking poles. If you bring your trekking poles, don't forget to attach the baskets to prevent the poles from going through the boardwalk gaps. Other equipement that was nice to have were gaitors, as there was quite a bit of knee-height wet grass along the trail. The reward for the long drive and somewhat uninspiring boardwalk are the views once you get to Cape Alava. I never realized that Washington had some coastline gems that are up there with Oregon's. The view is spectacular even on a misty day. Both of the pictures were taken from campsites that are literally feet from the crashing waves. After falling in love with the North Cascades last year, I thought nothing in Washington would get my attention for some time. Well, the Olympic Penninsula has my attention and my heart, too.