Here is my report of the trip to Ruby Beach and (almost) the Hoh Fainforest, with pictures documenting the adventure.
Lisa and I headed out from Tacoma just a little after 6 a.m. on Thursday July 6th with a plan to visit Ruby Beach at near low tide and then the Hoh Rainforest after that. Lisa drove.
We arrived at Ruby Beach at around 9:30 (there were a few places where road construction was underway, so we had a wait a few minutes to continue on our way), parked her vehicle, and made pit stops at the restroom there, then we headed down the trail to the beach.
It was foggy when we arrived but that wasn’t a huge detriment, as you can see from these images. Several of them are frame-worthy, in my opinion. (These are all my photos taknne with my smartphone. Lisa took a lot, too, but I haven’t seen many of them or received them from her yet; when I do receive them, I’ll post a second session and put her best images there.)
This image was taken in the afternoon at about 3 p.m.when the beach was nearing high tide.
(We returned there briefly after our Hoh rainforest attempt.)
The following photos were taken during low tide, when the rocks, boulders and sea stacks were accessible.
A colony of mussels attached to a large boulder during low tide.
This is me in front of the largest sea stack at Ruby Beach, accessible only during low tide.
Ruby Beach at near high tide, taken from the parking lot area
Post card perfect image. My favorite of the day as far as composition and ambiance!
The above image was taken during the return trip in the afternoon near high tide
I LOVE this photo with my best friend Lisa!
After leaving Ruby Beach, Lisa drove us to Forks WA (yes, the “hometown” mentioned in the Twilight series!) where we ate lunch. Then we headed back in the direction of Ruby Beach and home, but our destination after lunch was the Hoh Rainforest, which is sandwiched just about halfway between Forks and Ruby Beach.
We diverted left (inland) about 15 miles toward the Hoh Rainforest entrance, drove almost to the ranger station there, but the parking lot was full and there was a more-than-hour-long wait to get in, so we turned around and headed back out, because we had driven through areas that were very Rainforest-looking, so we decided to pull off the road in those spots and capture the following images. Again, these are all my photos. I will follow up in another post with Lisa’s when I get hers.
This baby crab was high and dry during low tide, so I picked it up and carried it to a tide pool, and off it scuttled, happy to have watery surroundings again.
Orangey-brown starfish during low tide clinging to a boulder
Sea anemones and a purple starfish during low tide Ruby Beach WA July 6 2023
Sea anemones, barnacles and starfish during low tide
The trip took me 13.5 hours round trip. I met Lisa at her apartment and parked my vehicle there, shaving off almost 20 miles for her. Good thing because, on the way back, Lisa developed motion sickness, so we stopped in Aberdeen for about an hour so she could recoup and take some Pepti Bismol to settle her stomach, but she was nauseous again by the time we reached Lakewood a little over an hour later (where she lives), so we got back at just the right time. Poor gal!
Other than the motion sickness part, we had a total blast! (Highway 101 from Aberdeen to Forks winds back and forth and up and down a lot, which is what caused Lisa’s motion sickness. It happened last time we went to Forks for Raincon severl years ago, too. Nowhere else does it seem to happen except on airplanes, which doesn’t bode well for our 12+-hour flight to form San Francisco Auckland NZ next year, but she is utterly committed and intent to going, so she says she’ll take her motion sickness pills and deal with it. I sure hope they help because she had a toigh time yesterday!
