Going west
From droughts to floods
Following our visit to semi-arid Central Washington, where the water story is one of scarcity, our next trip is to the coast, where the water story is one of excess. The droughts and fires in Central Washington and the sea level rise, river flooding, and coastal erosion along the coast are two sides of the same coin—a warming planet. The coast must also reckon with the threat of an earthquake and Tsunami from the Cascadia Subduction Zone just offshore.
Tuesday
We’re heading out again, this time to Kalaloch (pronounced “Claylock”) campground in Olympic National Park via Whidbey Island’s other ferry, from Coupeville to Port Townsend. We are unable to get a reservation, but we have no problem getting on the boat perhaps because of the rainy weather. Our route on US Highway 101 takes us through Port Angeles and then Forks, of Twilight fame. Between Forks and Kalaloch we pass four one-way sections; two are projects to repair flood damage from the torrential rains of last winter, and two others are to improve bridges or culverts for fish passage so that salmon may once again head up the coastal rivers to spawn.
They were initially no sites available at Kalaloch, but we put our name on a wait list and were able to score a site. This campground is more expensive than last week’s at $12 a night, but for that we get a bathroom with running water! The campground is a narrow strip between Highway 101 and the ocean. We picked a site near the ocean so we can hear the waves but not the highway. A row of bushes blocks the view of the ocean, but also some of the wind.
I have always been drawn to west coasts, perhaps because I was born on one—the northwest coast of England. I’ve enjoyed them from Scotland to New Zealand, but I have a special affection for the Pacific coastal temperate rainforests, which stretch from Northern California’s coastal redwoods to the Alaska panhandle.
Wednesday
We sleep well to the sound of the ocean and some overnight rain and wake up to patches of blue sky with a hot weekend in the forecast.
The Northern Washington outer coast features wide, sandy beaches punctuated by rocky headlands, perfect for a morning walk.
We take a drive north, cutting across a corner of the Hoh Indian Reservation, across the Hoh River, back to Forks, and then down to the village of La Push at the mouth of the Quillayute River, the de facto capital of the Quileute Indian Reservation. The beaches at La Push are spectacular. James Island, just offshore, is sacred to the Quileute tribe. It been returned to them, and only tribal members are allowed to visit.
The village is the start of the Olympic Discovery Trail, a partially completed non-motorized multiuse trail across the Olympic Peninsula, and of the Grand Déppart of a ride on the XWA, the Cross-Washington Mountain Bike Route.
The Quileute Tribe’s Rialto Beach is on the other side of the river mouth but there’s no river crossing here, so to get to it we must go almost back to Forks. We fail in out attempt to visit, as the road to the beach was heavily damaged by river flooding last winter, and crews have begun staging equipment for repairs in the beach parking lot. La Push, too, is vulnerable to river flooding, coastal flooding, sea level rise, and tsunami, and the tribe is planning accordingly.
Back at the camp site for the evening, the sun has finally come out, and we almost, but not quite, stay awake for the sunset.
Thursday
On this bright, sunny day, we head south through the Quinault Reservation to Lake Quinault in Olympic National Park. There’s a road on both the north and south side of the lake, meeting at a bridge a few miles up the Quinault River. We choose to ride our gravel bikes on South Shore Road. Once again, river flooding has claimed a section of road, this time washing it away and closing it completely to cars. We’re able to walk the bikes around the washout through the woods and then continue on the gravel road by the river to the bridge. We pass two beautiful waterfalls, one of which is pictured below. We see only three other cyclists, with whom, this being Washington, we turn out to have only two degrees of separation.
The ride is what we’ve come to the peninsula for; spectacular pristine beauty in the National Park. There’s hardly anyone there, in contrast to the crowds trying to get to Rialto Beach. It’s the highlight of the trip.
The three tribes whose territory we have crossed on this trip are those who are included in the Treaty of Olympia—the Quinault, Quileute, and the Hoh, at the time considered a subgroup of the Quileute. Together, they commissioned a Report on Climate Change Vulnerability from The Oregon Climate Change Research Institute. Of the three, the Quinault Tribe is the furthest along with planning, with a project to relocate the Village of Taholah due to the triple threat from tsunamis, storm surge and riverine flooding. Native American community land ownership structures allow for the possibility of managed retreat, while the rest of us are in denial, clinging to our private property rights as if they were a life raft.
Once again, the exercise wins, sleep calls, and we fail to see the sunset.
Friday
We wake to a cold, bright, and less windy morning. We have time for a walk on the beach before heading home. We admire the worm tracks on the beach, and a cyclist who ritually dips his tires in the water before heading off to do the same in a few months’ time and a few thousand miles in Rhode Island.
Postscript
Two weeks later, as I write this, that fine, dry weather came to an end with thunderstorms, one of which sparked a wildfire in the Hoh Rainforest. Two weeks later still, as I edit, the Mt. Tom Creek fire is still burning. On the evening of 4th July, a fire started at Umtanum Creek Recreation Area in Yakima Canyon, and the campsite we were at earlier last month was evacuated.
Fire season has started early.
Where are your hikes? Let us know in the comments!
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I so love La Push. Have been visiting since I was a toddler. The Hoh rainforest is one of my favorite places on earth.
And you can be entirely forgiven for not making sunset. It’s so dang late at this time of the year in the PNW.
My time in that area was a quarter century ago, so maybe that is why it was startling to read that Rialto beach had crowds. I spent time there all alone and it remains one of the most magical places I've ever been.