Rialto Beach, WA

Sunday 9/2/2012

 

Just 10 miles west of Forks, WA on Hwy. 110 is the small town of Mora. As we entered into Mora we saw this sign. 

 

In Mora, you take Quillayute Rd.to the right and go two miles to get to Rialto Beach.

Rialto Beach is rugged, beautiful and isolated.

When we left Forks it was warm and sunny, but at Rialto Beach it was foggy and cool. Big difference in a 12 miles distance.

Because it was Labor Day weekend, there were many people on the beach.

We wanted to walk to the "Hole in the Rock"which was a 1 1/2 miles walk north on the beach.

Joe spotted this poor seal, who had met his demise.

Made us wonder what happened to it and why you do not see more of them on the beach. But I guess as they get old, they become someones dinner before they end up on the beach.

It's little flippers.

If you want to walk through the "Hole in the Rock" you need to get there at low tide. We had been walking at a rather fast pace to get there before high tide.

Because we are late risers, we never get any where early.

By the time we got there, the tide was coming in, and we watched this couple scale the rock wall carrying their backpacks. There must be a trail and camping beyond the "Hole in the Rock", because as we walked on the beach to this spot, we had seen many people coming from the hole carrying backpacks and over night gear. They all knew they had to get to the hole before high tide if they were going to make it back to the parking lot that night. I though we were too late as I watched this couple struggle back to shore. Then a guy came from behind us and took the lower road to the hole. Joe looked at me and asked if I wanted to try to get there. I was surprised, because Joe tends to play it safe. I said sure, and we parked our backpacks and stuff, up the beach by a log, and started our climb, staying lower and timing the in coming waves.

We didn't actually go through the hole, but we made it to the hole, for the picture.

The tide was coming in and we didn't want to be stuck on the other side without camping gear.

As we made our way back to shore, I stopped to see these purple clams,

and other sea creatures that live in the tidal pools,

and can be seen at low tide.

Burgundy star fish.

I think this was my favorite beach in the state of Washington.

Even though it was foggy, there was something very special about this beach.

The tide coming through the two giant sea stacks.

Since we were at the "Hole in the Rock", Joe and I, have since seen the commercial for Priceline with William Shatner separately at different times. When I first saw the commercial, I right away thought Shatner was standing on the other side of the hole. Latter Joe saw it and said he thought that the commercial was shot there. When he mentioned it to me, I said I thought the same thing. Next time you see that commercial, remember it was shot in Washington at Rialto Beach.

We had to walk much higher on the beach as we went back, because the tide was coming in.

Some of the logs are 6 feet in diameter. That is what I read before we came to that beach. There are signs in the parking lot telling you not to walk on the logs at high tide, because the rolling logs can be very dangerous.

The beach was filled with wonderful smooth round rocks like other Washington beaches have had.

There were several fishermen there that day.

We wished we had brought Mallery that day, because it was cool enough, and she would have enjoyed it. But we also would not have been able to carry her, and make it to the entrance of the "Hole in the Rock", so it was good we didn't bring her.

Joe spotted this rock balancing on another rock.

Wow, how did someone get that to balance like that! That was pretty incredible!

 We decide to bring Mallery the next day and walk the south end of the beach to the point.

Driving back toward Mora, I took a picture of Quillayute River that flows out at Rialto Beach.

There is a campground one mile from Rialto Beach. We pulled in to check it out.



It is the Mora Olympic National Park Campground. There are no hook ups, and the sites were fairly short. Joe didn't think our 40 foot rig would fit in them very easily. If they did it would be very tight. There is a dump station at the entrance of the campground.

As we drove through Mora we saw another sign welcoming Twilight fans.

Before we even got to Mora the fog was lifted.

Another beautiful sunset in Forks that evening.