Hiking the Olympic Beach

This environment of endless upheaval is also the site of one of the most diverse biological communities in the Pacific Northwest. Tidepools harbor an almost infinite array of invertebrate life amid a lush growth of aquatic plants. Gulls, mergansers, ospreys, and bald eagles wheel on the ocean breezes, while oystercatchers and sandpipers patrol the beaches and rocks. The offshore islands teem with marine mammals, featuring sea otters, gray whales, orcas, harbor seals, and the endangered Steller's sea lion. Such a bounty of marine life forms the economic backbone of the coastal Indian villages that have stood here from time immemorial. - Hiking Olympic National Park

Hiking the Trail
At the recommendation of Sports Afield, we're going to start hiking the beach at LaPush, and take two or three days to hike the 15 miles south to Oil City. Beach hikes often involve waiting for tides to go down or storms to calm so the beach can be hiked or streams fjorded - thus the non-aggressive mileage.

The trailhead we'll start at is called the Second Beach Trailhead. We'll then hike past the Third Beach Trailhead, and end our hike at the Oil City Trailhead after hiking the "South Beach". There we'll take a shuttle back to our car operated by "Olympic Tours and Charters" (360-452-3858). Useful Info NPS site for beach hikes at Olympic National Park Coastal Hiking at Olympic National Park Information We'll need to keep our eyes on the tide for this hike. Get info from the NOAA tide site for tides at Aberdeen, Washington. Information on getting a backcountry permit

Other Olympic National Park Sites

• National Park Service Olympic National Park Site
• A "huge" park map. This takes a couple minutes to download.

Backup Plan