After our intense 35 mile backpacking trip, Celebrity and I left Quinault and took the best 3 min showers of our lives at a state park campground. We arrived at Rialto Beach fresher and ready to rest near the Pacific Ocean.
After repacking all our gear and food into one canister and filling up our water, we headed out to the beach for our 1.5 miles to the Hole in the Wall. I pulled out the tide table and realized that we were at high tide. We waited for a little while and did some log climbing and racing of the tide.
We arrived at our beautiful destination and found a great campsite with an excellent sitting log overlooking the ocean. It was also quite near the outhouse but not close enough to smell anything.
After the tide went out a little we went to explore the tidepools and search for shells. Despite all the visitors and foot traffic, the sea life continues in this area.
It was a beautiful relaxing day. It was too cloudy for a sunset, but we enjoyed a relaxing night listening to the ocean.
The next day we explored the Hole in the Wall during the morning low tide and hiked up the beach a ways.
We came back for lunch and sat for a few hours watching the tide come in. We got to know some boy scouts at the end of a 50 mile hike from Shi Shi Beach to Rialto Beach. The boys got stranded near our camp and we did some people watching along with our ocean watching.
Celebrity bravely dipped her toes in.
We enjoyed watching the sun dip behind the clouds.
The hole in the wall was glowing.
We slipped into another deep sleep and woke up the next morning ready to hike back toward Rialto Beach.
We hiked back out, almost missing our car since the walk at low tide looked so different.
We reloaded our bear canister and headed out to the third beach trail head. After the 1.5 mile walk we set up our tent and explored the beach.
We both were braver and enjoyed the water, though it was still cold.
The sea life was beautiful.
We headed up the cliff using ropes and ladders to climb to the top of the cliff.
We gazed back down at our tent and the ocean.
We felt a little like we were on "survivor" though the cliff climb was much easier with the assistance of ropes.
After spending a little time on the cliff top, we headed back toward our home for the night.
The climb down was somewhat scarier than the climb up.
We made it down safely and headed back to our tent to ensure it had not been washed away by the rising tide.
We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the tide come in, napping, and reading.
While we were having our dinner, a ranger came up and asked me if I was Melody George. He gave me a cryptic message that one of my daughters had gone to the hospital and was in stable condition. We finished eating, packed up, hiked the 1.5 miles back to our car, and started the 6 hour drive back to Doernbecker Hospital in Portland where my one year old was hooked up to all sorts of monitors after a pretty scary fever and high heart rate. I was so grateful for the support of Celebrity and was so glad to see my family after a week away, grateful my littlest one was getting good care, grateful that the ranger found me on the beach, and ready to enter the reality of the medical questions for my youngest daughter.
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