June 11 – South Beach at Pacific Rim NP

Another day, another beach.

Our timing was backwards today. The forecast said partly sunny. We always like to go out in the morning so that we can have lunch somewhere scenic. This morning it was cloudy and cool. Almost as soon as we got back to the RV it got bright and sunny. Oh well, at least it didn’t rain.

The trail to South Beach is another short easy one. In these cases it is the destination that is important and not the journey.

The picture above was on the way back. Notice the difference in clothing on the way in, below.

This hill (even though the picture makes it look flat) was not steep enough for stairs but too steep for a family trail so it has a ramp.

In the bushier parts they really trimmed a wide path.

An interesting old log. I wonder which kind of bug made all the trails.

Down the a long set of stairs to the beach.

South Beach has two claims to fame. It is a great, although slightly unsafe, place to watch the big waves crash against the shore.

Most importantly for Jennie, when waves hit the shore the stones make a rattling sound. We have heard this in a few other beaches in our travels and it is always fun to listen to. The reason for the sound is that all the stones and pebbles on the beach are very round so it is easy for the waves to toss them up in the air as they crash on shore.

All of them are nice and smooth.

You can see them being tossed around by the waves.

It is hard to take a good picture of a clear jelly.

First we explored the headlands at this end of the beach.

Lots of nooks and crannies.

Photosphere time.

South Beach Photosphere

We are getting better at finding the sea stars.

One of my mottos seems to be, “If there are rocks, then I must climb them”.

A nice long channel with a splash at the end.

I scrambled around for different views.

While I was exploring, Jennie was in her element on the beach, examining all the rocks and polished shell fragments.

I found this interesting channel with two bridges over it and a little beach at the end.

I figured that this was a great lunch viewpoint so I went down to see if Jennie would make the somewhat difficult climb up.

Of course.

But this meant that now that there was a camera I had to go stand on the bridges.

Looking out.

From my GPS track you can see that I was all over the place.

We went back down to the beach for some more examination.

Unfortunately Jennie got a little too close and a freakishly large wave caught her. She got soaked up to the knees. We were going to continue on to another beach but not with soaking shoes.

The trail head is at the Visitor’s Center that never seems to be open. For the last part of the way back we went out onto its beach.

There were a few surfers out, here in the bigger waves today.

And then back to the RV and the sunshine.

Tonight I was hoping to get some sunset pictures but when I looked at the map I realized I would have to go far down the park to see the sun set over the ocean. Instead I just did a quick trip out to the close access to Long Beach.

Sure enough.

There were still some hardy souls out.

Time to go home.