Olympic National Park's wild and pristine coastline is a demanding beauty

CAPE JOHNSON -- You expect a winter hike on the Olympic National Park's jumbled and jagged ocean coast to be wet, cold and magnificently miserable. But sitting here on a crescent bay, as a flaming winter sun screams pinks and reds across the sky as it sets behind sharp-angled sea stacks, it almost feels as if you're in a South Seas paradise.

Then you shift positions and feel a twinge in your back, an ache in your calves and a flare-up of the hot spot between your boot and big toe -- the physical manifestation of three days of hiking on slick boulders, ankle-twisting cobbles, teeter-totter drift logs and loose gravel, not to mention the slipperiest boardwalk on the continent.

Olympic National Park's wilderness beach strip -- at 65 miles the longest pristine ocean shore in the lower 48 states -- is indeed a paradise, but one that exacts a price. Even when the weather is grand, you must carry your world on your shoulders to visit the best of it, three distinct sections that offer some of the most inspiring backpacking routes in America. On some stretches, the footing is so rough and varied it will twist your ankles in angles you never thought possible.

"I think it's cool that you kind of pick your own route," says Bryn Beorse as our blissful but slightly weary crew sits around a crackling beach fire at its last camp, known as Chilean Memorial for a marker that commemorates a 1920 shipwreck that killed 20.

"Except for on the headlands, there's really no trail. You follow the ocean, but you find the best way through all the boulders and rocks and reefs and tide pools. You're side by side with the sea; you've got the surf and the ocean and all its moods, the wildlife. There's really nothing like it in the lower 48."

JOSHUA TRUJILLO / P-I

A backpacker boulder-hops across tide pools teeming with marine life, such as this sea star, near the Chilean Memorial on the Olympic National Park beach strip north of La Push.

However, it is a curiously different sort of hiking, one that gives you a sense of geologic convolution and the rhythms of nature and the sea.

The views are expansive, but of misty coastlines and sea-stack silhouettes. You hike when the tide allows, since the surf pummels the coast twice daily on the highs and often blocks routes around headlands. You cross streams when tides and rainfall allow. You climb over slides of clay and rock and giant spruce trees laid down by the constantly crumbling coast.

"We're accustomed to think of the American wilderness in terms of great mountain landscapes, but frankly, the raw, undisturbed shoreline is a much rarer commodity," says Bob Steelquist, an information specialist with the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, which encompasses these waters. "When I'm out there, the wilderness characteristic that is most profound is having that big ocean bearing down on you."

Our four-day hike begins at the Lake Ozette Ranger Station and ends at Rialto Beach to the south. It's a route the park calls the North Coast Beach Travelway, a little more than 20 miles overall. The other two major hiking sections are the South Coast Beach Travelway, between the Hoh River and Third Beach near La Push, a route just more than 17.3 miles long. It is rugged too, with more headlands but also more sandy beaches. The Ozette to Shi Shi Travelway on the north is about 13.4 miles, but it includes the coast's most rugged stretch and a difficult stream crossing.

JOSHUA TRUJILLO / P-I

Winter backpacking doesn't get any better than this. A campsite on a sandy beach near the Chilean Memorial offers a widescreen view of a lovely Pacific Ocean sunset.

Our journey begins in perhaps fitting but frustrating fashion, on the infamous Ozette boardwalk. Most of the 2.8 miles from the ranger station to Sand Point, as well as another trail to Cape Alava to the north, is on cedar boardwalk, built to bridge almost continuously swampy and muddy terrain. It does keep hikers out of the muck, but it is so chronically wet and slick that two of our party fall and all of us slip multiple times.

The park advises against wearing lug-soled boots on the boardwalk, but when it's wet, which is almost always, it's an adventure even wearing tennis shoes or other rubber-soled footwear. West district ranger Mike Gurling says the park is experimenting with alternatives -- we would urge haste in that endeavor.

When we reach Sand Point and look south, the scene is primeval. A long sandy beach is lined by a forest of brooding Sitka spruce, their long outswept limbs contorted by frequent heavy winds. Bald eagles and ravens are a constant presence. The tide is out and we walk south on firm sand.

We camp near the trickle of a stream on the cobbles of a beach called Yellow Banks. The cobbles don't hold stakes well and our tents sag, but skies are clear. Park officials prefer that hikers camp on the upper beach, which is already largely unvegetated and regularly swept by the tides. Upland sites are available in many places, but the impact of hikers is left on the vegetation. However, when camping on the beach, especially in winter with its higher tides, you must place your tent well above the coming high tide.

JOSHUA TRUJILLO / P-I

At low tide, many parts of the Olympic Coast turn into a rock- and boulder-dotted expanse of tide pools that invites exploration. The waters along the national park shore are part of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

Perhaps the most important thing to pack when hiking this wild coast is a tide book. Most headlands can be rounded only on lower tides. Some have overland routes you can take on higher tides, but some don't. Sometimes people get trapped by the incoming tide and die.

"We've had a number of people that have fallen from the cliffs," says Mark O'Neill, the Mora district ranger since 1997. "They get in a hurry and the tide comes up and they get blocked, so they think they can climb around. We've had several people who have fallen with packs on. We've had several fatalities in the last eight years."

We build a beach fire as the red orb of the sun drops into the sea and temperatures cool. The surf is up, with beautiful 6- to 7-footers rolling in. It's chilly that night in our bags.

The pace crawls in the morning. South of Yellow Banks, the coast is a rough and wild rocky hell, with long bluffs on the uplands pocked by stony alcoves and grottos, long stretches of algae-covered boulders and tide pools, large sandstone cobbles and patches of loose sand and gravel. Here we find a dead sea lion, its skull bare but body covered by bloated hide. A mile or more down the beach, tracks in the sand show the path of a cougar.

We reach an expansive campsite in the woods at Norwegian Memorial, another shipwreck monument, after several hours but only 4.5 miles of hiking, ready to relax. Eagles are everywhere. Gulls stand at the edge of the surf. Ravens caw. We have an afternoon low tide, so we explore extensive pools here, see a beautiful harlequin duck and search gravel piles for agates.

As the sun sets, we have trouble finding dry wood, but manage to get a smoky, unsatisfying fire going. In the night the temperature drops to 25 degrees and none of us sleeps well.

The next day the tide is ebbing but still up, so we climb a marked route over a headland, aided by ropes rangers have installed on one side and a cable-and-timber "sand ladder" on the other, emerging onto an unusual, milelong beach. Here the beach gradient is steep and the surf has pushed foot-size cobbles into a narrow shelf against the uplands, stacked on the high side with wave-burnished and sun-bleached drift logs, some of them immense old cedars with twisted root bases. It's a chore following this shelf, with the footing loose and log-hopping frequent.

At the end of this beach is a "coastie head," which we're forced to climb since the tide is not yet out far enough. Atop this headland is a weathered old cedar shack, moss-roofed and listing southward. The view here is long and spectacular in three directions. During World War II, the Coast Guard used the head and the shack as an observation post.

South of the head the beach is mostly sand and pleasant for about two miles, interrupted only by Saddle Rock, a headland that must be climbed at all times, but with a low point that makes it easy. Another headland marks a two-mile stretch of tricky, boulder- and tide pool-hopping, ending with the rounding of Cape Johnson and gaze-inducing sights. Arrayed southward past James Island and La Push is a jumbled line of sea-stack sentinels, some topped by wind-contorted, bonsailike spruce.

This is the bay marked by Chilean Memorial, our last camp, and it is virtually enclosed by sea stacks and reefs, holding back the surf and providing a calm, soothing ambience with incomparable scenery. We're less than five miles from trip's end at Rialto Beach. We build a beach fire, heartily eat most of our remaining food and enjoy our best sunset.

Here we ponder our excursion. We figure it takes almost twice as much time and energy to hike here as on a typical trail, and twice the toll on the ankles and feet. It's a delicate balance between the wicked footing and the weight of a pack. Had it been wet, it would have been worse. But not a drop of rain falls.

We hike out the next day awash in wilderness wonder, but guided by visions of burgers and shakes at Three Rivers Resort a few miles up the road from Rialto.

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

Coastal hiking log

• Hiking Olympic National Park's rugged wilderness shore requires special precautions, especially in winter. Review the Backcountry Travel pages on the park's Web site, and specifically the page on coastal hiking, www.nps.gov/olym/wic/coast.htm The park's Wilderness Information Center (360-565-3100) can answer questions, but in winter it is open only Friday and Saturday; you may leave a message and your call will be returned.
• Waters along the park shoreline are part of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, and another useful Web site is olympiccoast.noaa.gov.
• The guidebook "Hiking Olympic National Park" by Erik Molvar (Falcon, 248 pages, $14.95) is a useful reference.

Beach hiking basics

• Rising tides and surf can trap you on coastal headlands, many of which can be rounded only during low tides of varying degrees. Also note that offshore storms can increase surf conditions and high tides, especially in winter. Carry a tide book. A few headlands cannot be rounded at any tide; overland routes are marked by round orange-and-black signs.
• High winter tides can put the surf right into the driftwood along the beach, flinging logs that can crush and kill. Consult your tide book and stay off the beach during extreme highs. When camping on the beach, make sure to pitch your tent well above the high-tide line.
• Creek crossings can be tough when flows are up after rainy periods. When crossing, unbuckle your pack straps so you can jettison the backpack if you fall. A hiking staff or trekking poles help.
• In winter on the Northwest coast, you'd better be prepared. Take full raingear and warm clothing (nothing of cotton, which robs you of heat when wet), extra food, first-aid kit, map and compass and other essentials.
• Raccoons have become skilled in stealing hikers' food, so park regulations require that food and garbage be stored in hard-sided containers such as bear canisters. Bear canisters may be borrowed from the park for a $3 "donation." Check the park Web site for locations and make sure they will be open when you stop by.
• Creek water is typically tea-colored due to wood tannins, but fine to drink when filtered, treated with iodine or boiled. As in any wilderness, please minimize your impact by leaving no litter, cutting no live vegetation and using pit toilets where available or burying bodily waste well away from water.
• Permits are required for overnight hikes in the park's backcountry and cost $5 for registration and $2 per night per person. You can fill out your permit at the trailhead and then mail in the fee, or get the permit at the park's Wilderness Information Center when it's open. Permit numbers are limited in summer at the popular Sand Point-Cape Alava area.

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