Ruby Beach is the northernmost beach in the Kalaloch area of the Olympic National Park, about 10 minutes north of the Kalaloch Lodge. The beach is famous for its reddish rocky sand and rock islands known as sea stacks. Driftwood lines the shore of the beach (and all the beaches), providing the lumber from which the lodge was built. Signs warn us of flying logs in stormy weather that can move quickly in the water and hurtle onto the beach (and into people who might be out enjoying the storm).
Path to the beach
On the beach
Ruby Beach is part of the Graveyad of the Pacific, home to hundreds of shipwrecks on the reefs, shoals, and sea stacks. On a peaceful day, the area provides wondrous scenery, but these all become treacherous obstacles in the powerful Pacific storms.
Sea stacks range in size from very small islands to shear columns of rock, all of which are remnants of headlands sheared from the mainland and shaped by the erosive force of the sea. Some lie close to the shore and often stand dry on the beach at low tide. Others rest offshore by as much as 3 miles (5 km).
Sea stacks
Much of the beach is covered by driftwood logs which are mostly giant conifers from the rainforest that are picked clean by the sea. They travel on the mountain streams when glacial melt causes the water in the streams to rise as much as six feet (1.8 meters), undermining the banks, toppling trees into the water, and washing them down to the river mouth and the beach. Other trees fall onto the beach from eroding headlands and some are strays drifting in from tug-pulled log rafts.
Along the beach
Driftwood hut
Driftwood covered section of beach
Ruby Beach is a great morning walk and rumored to be a great spot to watch the sunset over the Pacific (we don't do that this trip, maybe next time).
No comments:
Post a Comment