I drove out to the Makah Reservation on the Olympic Peninsula to do two hikes today. The first was to Shi Shi Beach and the Point of Arches in Olympic National Park. This is a nice 8 mile round trip hike with 200 ft of loss down to the beach. I only saw one group of 3 backpackers and 2 other day hikers here today. The trail starts at a small parking area on the Makah Reservation and goes 1.7 miles to the boundary with Olympic National Park. It was raining when I started and the boardwalks were very slippery, and most of the rest of the trail was wet and muddy.
I saw some early wildflowers, lots of skunk cabbage in bloom,
yellow violets, and
salmonberry blossoms. 
Also saw some shelf fungus growing on the trees.
A view of the Pacific Ocean north of Shi Shi Beach, from a side trail along the way.
On entering Olympic National Park, the trail goes down 200 feet on trail and stairs down to the woods along the beach. View of the Pacific Ocean on one of the trails to the beach.
I first went over to the north end of Shi Shi Beach, it was raining and foggy, very moody.
As I walked south along the 2 mile stretch of beach, the low tide revealed some interesting rocks and tide pools.
zoom of the sea stacks north of Shi Shi Beach
I saw seagulls, oyster catchers and other sea birds along the shore this morning.
View towards the sea stacks in the Point of Arches on the south end of Shi Shi Beach.
As I was hiking the sun came out, the fog lifted and blue sky appeared.
The sea stacks in the Point of Arches reflecting in the water.
I arrived about 45 minutes before today's low tide of 0. This gave me time to walk out among the closer sea stacks in the Point of Arches and explore.
view from the other side of the first arch
view of the sea stacks to the south of Shi Shi Beach
A beautiful place to wander.
some of the sea stars and anemones I saw
On the way back up Shi Shi Beach, I saw these interesting large prints in the sand, probably deer.
There were several creeks to cross along Shi Shi Beach, this one was quite wide.
So nice to have blue sky as I returned to the north end of Shi Shi Beach.
zoom of the sea stacks north of Shi Shi Beach
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