Olympic Peninsula Vacation: Ozette Triangle

Here’s what I learned about Olympic National Park on this trip.  It’s BIG.  We were already staying in the park and the drive to the Ozette area was very long.  More than an hour.   Thank goodness we had Game of Thrones for Matt to read while I drove.img_6349

This blurry photo is to remind me we were at Point of Arches.  Anchoring photos are my favorite thing about digital photography.  Since I’m not worried about wasting film, I can always take pictures of signs.  In the future I will never have to wonder where the heck that pretty vista is from.img_6350

Learning about the area.img_6351

We were hiking the triangle.  Three miles of boardwalk trail to the beach, three miles of beach, three miles of boardwalk trail back.  Matt poses at the beginning.  I love how the sign has two different graphics saying that dogs are not allowed.  Dogs facing to the right? Nope.  Dogs facing to the left? Nuh-uh.img_6354

We did not spend any time at Ozette Lake, but that is it in the distance.img_6355

We went right, toward Cape Alava.img_6356

Our boardwalk. It wasn’t particularly slippery, due to it being early September, before the rains really start again.img_6357

Some tantalizing beach.img_6358

Matt on the beach. You can see how rocky and remote it is.  Looking at Google Maps, it seems that Cape Alava, where our first section of trail ends, is in the southern part of the Ozette Indian Reservation.  Interestingly, google maps shows the trail to Sand Point, but not the trail to Cape Alava.  It also marks Wedding Rocks, which were the petroglyphs that we missed.  This person saw them, though.img_6359 img_6360

Here’s the thing about this hike.  In our hiking book, it was a level 1 hike.  I chose it, because the hike from the day before was really exhausting.  (It was a level 3 hike).  This was not a level 1 hike!  Three miles of walking on sand, picking your way across rocks and over driftwood is not easy.  And three miles of not easy does not equal a level 1 hike.img_6361

As you can see, the tide is pretty far out as we began the beach walk portion.  By the time we made it to Sand Point you could see how much it had come in.img_6362

The driftwood was impressive.  You can barely see Matt standing at the other end of this tree.  So very tall!img_6363

Me on some rocks.img_6364

I was glad the tide was out for this part, because we would have had to climb a very steep incline to get over this point if the tide had been in.  Looking at the post from that person who did see the petroglyphs, I think this is the location.img_6365

Matt finds some seaglass.img_6367

Self-portrait.  img_6368 img_6369

Sand Point is along the horizon line.  We did not hike all the way out to the end of it. Instead we started on the third leg of the triangle.  You can see the tide has come in. No rocks are visible.img_6370

Only three miles back to the ranger station.img_6371

There were some very pretty lavender mushrooms.img_6372

The color didn’t quite come through in these photos.img_6373