As Far West As We Can Go

2023-07-11
Olympic National Park, WA

Today started a bit late because of the tides. The Ozette Triangle is a 9.5 mile hike out on the coast. It is roughly an equilateral triangle, with each side being about three miles. One of the sides is along the beach, and probably 50-60% of the time is spent in that section because it's much more of a slog through sand and gravel and out in the rocks around tide pools. You also have to go out on the rocky tidal flats to get around the points, which means that this is a low tide hike. Today's low tide was 1:50 PM so we started our hike around 11:00 after driving two hours to the beach. Tomorrow's tide isn't as low (about a foot higher) so today was the better choice.

At the beginning of the beach section the water comes right up to the beach

Another stack. It's what there is to see...

I made it 5 miles before I slipped off a rock and into a tide pool. My shoes are trail runners which are great for letting the water out, but as a consequence they also let the water in. Sure, it runs back out again, but the socks remain damp for a while. I'm just glad I made it that far before dipping my toes.

View from pretty far out on the tidal flats. Don't be here when the tide rolls in.

We also stopped to see some petroglyphs. You've probably heard my opinions on them; the only difference between a petroglyph and graffiti is when it was made. And frankly these could be dozens or hundreds of years old but no one knows.

The north end of the beach stretch is Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous United States. Having gotten to it, we knew that future travels would have to take us closer to home. We still have a bit of wandering left, but we have no choice but to go east from here.

View from the beach at Cape Alava. The island straight out is a wildlife refuge.

After we found the entrance for the third leg, it was an easy walk back to the car. Once back in Port Angeles we cleaned up and went and had a nice salmon dinner at the port. When in the Northwest, salmon is an excellent choice. Because we have been staying in hotels more, we have been eating meals out more often. We usually split a meal so we don't get too much food. Even with a hotel room it's hard to manage leftovers; fridges are flakey and we don't stay that long.

The hotel has a paper in the room (it's laminated!) that tells you that you shouldn't "clean fish or any other meat" with the hotel towels. It makes me want to go ask them what else I can't do with the towels. Can I rebuild my transmission? Patch my tent? Parachute from the roof?