Kalaloch Olympic National Park – Sequim Daily Photo

Windswept at Kalaloch

This beach is long and wide open. It’s trees are all windswept since there is nothing blocking the steady winds.

The ocean is so powerful. It tosses these enormous logs about like a child’s tinker toy. Every time you come to this beach after a storm or super tide you see a whole new batch. There is a great lodge here with individual cabins for rent that all face the ocean–perfect for storm watching!

Beach #2 at Kalaloch

Washington beaches get huge amounts of logs on them, especially after storms or high tides. You must be very careful to NEVER be near a log that is near the surf. The surf tosses and rolls thousand pound logs like little tinker toys, and people routinely get pinned or crushed by them.

The tree of life–Kalaloch

This AMAZING tree is reportedly over a hundred years old. For decades it has been suspended with NO EARTH below it (some roots going into the sides). But it clearly is still very much alive–note the green foliage at the top.

Yep, it’s a rainforest alright!

We spent one night at Kalaloch Campground in Olympic National Park. And we woke up to pouring rain.

We knew we were camping in the rainforest. And we discovered after we made our plans that rain was predicted. But we were hopeful. In Sequim the microclimates are varied enough that predictions are often wrong. Nonetheless, in an area that gets well over 100 inches of rain each year, wet is predictable and wet is what we got.

Here’s a small waterfall running down to the beach from near the campground area. I didn’t take a lot of pictures. My camera’s not designed for underwater photography.

On the road again

We planned a trip on admittedly short notice. While still on the injured list, the vet reduced our dog’s “no walks!” orders, allowing us to take off camping in our last open window of time anywhere close to summer. And the day we planned the trip was sunny, warm, and flawless. A trip along Washington’s Pacific Coast? Perfect!

This was sunset on our first night out, at Kalaloch Campground in Olympic National Park, about three hours drive west and south of Sequim. Kalaloch (pronounced CLAY-lock) is one of the few dog-friendly units in Olympic Park, meaning our pooch could legally walk with us to the beach, down a short trail from the campground. It’s a beautiful, seemingly endless expanse of sand punctuated with driftwood logs. At night campers drift off to sleep with the sound of waves dashed endlessly on shore. Sweet!