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This was an absolutely amazing trip that had some of the most incredible weather conditions I could ever hope for in a photography trip.  This collection of images comes from a SINGLE day of shooting in the park.  I can’t wait to re-visit this area and hopefully make it to the other side of Logan Pass next summer.

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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

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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@gmail.com

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If there ever was an ‘oh sh$t’ moment in my photographic career thus far this would have to be it. I left fairly early on a Friday morning in a valiant effort to make it down to Cape Kiwanda to shoot the sunset because the weather was looking prime to either be a complete bust or something really special. We had an offshore low spinning in some really unsettled weather in the form of a few nasty thunderstorms and some heavy rain/sleet/hail showers which made the drive down to Portland a ton of fun to say the least. Once I hit PDX a hopped over to HWY 101 to make a few pit stops on the way down the coast. I finally hit Kiwanda in the late afternoon and managed to get about 45 minutes of sleep in before heading out in the late afternoon light to set up for what I was seriously hoping to be some epic light.

Thunderstorms were everywhere and the rain showers were pummeling the coast as the sun fought through to illuminate the area. I shot a set on the rocks down below the dunes as the tide was still a out a bit and then made the climb to shoot some of the more well known compositions in that area. I shot some moody wave action on the cliffs for a bit before turning my attention to one of more well known comps of the Haystack made famous by guys like Dyar and Noriega when all of the sudden BOOM. Thunder cracked over head and rain started coming down. For whatever reason I decided to turn around and check out the cliffs directly behind me and they were absolutely going off. The sun had dropped right below the thunderhead and soaked the cliffs in warm ominous light. I scrambled down the slick clay (be forewarned it’s slick as hell especially when wet) shot over to the other side of the bluff and set up shop praying to the photography gods that I could get off a few clean shots. The light lasted maybe 5 minutes before being swallowed up by the incoming weather. It was definitely something I will never forget and it was one hell of a way to start my trip down the coast.

Photo Specs:

Sony a7r

16mm, ISO 50, f/13, 1/3sec, two exposures blended by hand in CS6 followed by utilizing luminosity masks and various editing techniques

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