Olympic National Park!

The Pacific coast always takes my breath away and the part along the Olympic National Park is no exception. We spent two nights in La Push at an oceanside resort run by the Quileute Tribe. We were lucky to see two gorgeous sunsets and an awesome golden hour just after dawn the second day. It was a memorable stay in more ways than one especially since I was meeting up with an old friend.

Our first stop on the way to La Push was the Tree of Life, not easy to find as it is not exactly on the map but the name intrigued me and we finally found it after several wrong turns. It was an interesting sight.  Further along Hwy 101 was the Big Cedar which lived up to its name - good for a photo stop.

La Push came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. We spent the day at First Beach and Rialto Beach, both very scenic. Rialto Beach had a lot of huge bleached driftwood trees that almost looked like giant sculptures in front of a grove of dead trees, the result of salt water destroying the roots. The trees were quite spectacular, although a little eerie. There are a number of sea stacks off the shore and one of them is connected to Rialto beach by a causeway that is covered by rocks and driftwood but not easily accessible except at low tide. We waited for low tide but it never came.  


I love the ocean and could spend hours just watching the waves crashing on the beach - every photo yielded a different dynamic. There were also surfers to watch and even someone fishing. To wrap up the day, we treated ourselves to a decent dinner at the River's Edge Restaurant, the only eatery in La Push.  We saw our second glorious sunset on the way back to our lodgings.

We drove to Hurricane Ridge on our way to the Seattle ferry the following day because we have heard the view of snow-capped mountains was quite spectacular. Unfortunately arriving there at midday was not the best time for photos - can't time everything perfectly!  At least the ferry crossing was good and we had Seattle in view just as the late afternoon sun hit it.  

Tree of Life

The roots of Big Cedar

First Beach at La Push

First sunset

The sandbar/causeway separating First Beach from Rialto Beach - we drove around instead

This "island" should have been reachable at low tide - if it ever came...

Waves crashing at high tide

Rialto Beach

Great place for Halloween

 

Giant driftwood

A European Starling foraging

Surfers' Paradise

Don't know how it can be both surfers' paradise and fisherman's too but it looked like this guy caught something!

Second sunset

The golden hour just after dawn - the light made a huge difference in how the islands looked.

This is my "dragon pearl" - not very original as I saw a photo of this in our cabin then proceeded to try and create the same frame, except I lucked out and happened on the golden hour on the island - hence "dragon and the gold pearl"

The view from Hurricane Ridge