This photo comes from the first chaotic night on the Washington Coast with some friends. For those that have been to Rialto you’ve seen the impressive first set of haystacks right near the parking lot. They are pretty damn cool and make for some awesome photos, but we decided to dig a little deeper for the goods. We bucked it up and moved fairly quickly down the beach toward what looked to be some pretty epic haystacks toward the very end of the beach.
A small memo for beach goers; objects may appear closer than they really are. Actually, that’s a bit of an understatement. I don’t know how far we hiked down the beach to reach these things but it must have been a ways because by the time we got there the sun was well on its way down and the light was fading fast. We ended up hiking a few miles down the beach to shoot these awesome haystacks, arriving just as the sun was sinking below the marine layer off shore and well to keep this short we lost track of time. Before we knew it the tide was coming in and it was dark. Small footnote here; I forgot to leave the girls in our group with a flashlight (in the doghouse for sure). We packed up our gear and moved as quickly as feasibly possible down the beach only to be slowed down by two older guys who not only didn’t have headlamps but were also high as hell on something other then life. We decided to help them get through some of the more difficult sections; you know the river crossing and such, and finally made it back to the car. I drove like a crazy man to get back to the tent site (by then it was dark) to discover that NO ONE was there. To say that I lost it was a bit of an understatement. Horns blaring, shouting at the top of our lungs and finally they came running out into the road.
Turns out that they moved down two tent sites (for a number of reasons) and were a-okay, they even had the tent set up. Apart from the anxiety attack they gave me and their cousin it ended up being an okay night. Solid start to an epic trip.
Rialto Beach, La Push, WA
Prints: cwexplorationphotography@g
