Drift-wooding into Rialto Beach

Being at Rialto Beach has been one of my goals in coming to Washington. I didn’t think it would happen so soon. And like many goals directed towards places, it doesn’t entirely meet my expectations. The beach itself lacks nothing in beauty and wonder. But I thought that it would be more isolated. The truth is the town of Forks is down the road and La Push is across the breakwater just a matter of a few hundred feet away.

None of this really takes away from the beauty of Rialto Beach itself. Photographers have a heyday here giving the impression of a completely wild and rarely visited coastline.

Access here is from a dedicated road, Highway 110, through thick woods. The beach is wide and a group of outcroppings stands to our left. These are huge land masses that are so large that forests grow on their flat tops. The sea sweeps by and around them. In the distance they are hazy and at certain times a fog horn is heard repeatedly sounding its warning. To our right is wild, churning surf, rocks, a point of land and more outcroppings leading far into the sea.

Driftwood here and at La Push are not small branches or pieces of wood but whole trees and their roots. They pile up and line the beach as far as the eye, and telephoto lens, can see. Driftwood is bleached white wood that’s light and burns well. The trees are dislodged in one place and deposited somewhere else, in this case down the Quillayute River and onto Rialto Beach. Some wood may come from the sea but I'm guessing not the majority that we're seeing. Once beached, ocean forces evenly spreads the wood along the shoreline at the high tide mark.  For driftwood lovers, this place is too much.