So Rialto Beach and I have quite the history and I should have known that making the trip back there could only have ended poorly. I started the trip out there at around 11am and I was hoping to make it down to the haystacks by around 4:30pm for the sunset. I rolled into the parking lot at around 10 till 4pm. Not good. I checked the tide and the high tide coincided with the sunset. Double not good. To say that getting down to the stacks during high tide was difficult would be an understatement. Most of the trip involved scrambling over massive piles of driftwood while dodging waves and hauling some serious ass down the beach. I ended up missing the majority of the good light but managed to snag some moody twilight shots as the stars started to come out.
I got all of my gear packed up and turned around to head down the beach when BOOM I got nailed by two consecutive sleeper waves from behind. Luckily my camera gear stayed dry but I was completely SOAKED. Water filled my boots and the extra layers I had on absorbed the water like a sponge. Awesome. So then I had to try to figure out a game plan for getting back since I really didn’t want to have to scramble over the driftwood in the dark even with a headlamp.
I decided that I was already wet so why not cut my loses and stick to the beach. I played dodge the wave for a good part of the time until I had to make the river crossing. Doing that crossing in the daylight is a cake walk. Doing it at night in soaking wet boots and clothes is a different story. Let’s just say that it probably looked like a scene right out of Jackass when I slipped and fell placing the log squarely between you guessed it. Good times!! At that point I just had to laugh. I mean what the hell else was I supposed to do ha! I finally made it back to the Jeep and made the executive decision to skip camping out in Mora and head to Forks. That hotel room bed never felt so damn good!
Rialto Beach, La Push, WA
