Kalaloch Tide Pools

 We took a trip up to Washington to go camping with my dad, his wife, and my sister. As kids, we went to Kalaloch nearly every summer. Now, it is hard to get a campsite reservation, so we were lucky we got one. We were on our last day there, but the morning provided a perfect opportunity to go see the tide pools. The low tide was perfect around 9:30, so we had an opportunity to get camp completely packed up before heading out to the beach. It was about a two mile walk down the beach from our campsite to the tide pools. All four of us were up for the hike, but also Laura was going to come with us. The weather was cool and overcast with a nice thick layer of fog hanging over the beach. Just another typical day on a Northwest beach.

We went down the beach to the north and our goal was to get to the first rocky area. This would provide us the best access to see the starfish, anemones, and sea cucumbers. We got there at just about the right time, but at the tail end of the lowest tide. We all wandered about on our own excited about our spots that we would see. We had a friend there to greet us also as a bald eagle was sitting on a rock above us. My goal was to get as far out as possible before the tide started coming back in. That meant that I broke away from the pack and walked out to the biggest outcropping out there. There was a natural arch closer in to the shore, but my goal was the biggest rock out there. I was glad I made it there because when I did there was the largest collection of starfish on the entire beach.

I tried to count them all, but there were far too many to count. I could tell the tide was coming in quick, so I tried to get the rest of the group to come with me out there before we lost the spot. It took a couple of minutes, but they were impressed when they made it out there and with no time to spare. Already the best spots were starting to get hit with waves. Tide pools are so interesting because they are a world that only exists each day for a short time period.

We had our fill of seeing the sea life, so we headed back the same way we came. Zyla was looking for beach glass and Conrad helped her. She found quite a bit which is surprising because this beach was definitely not known for its beach glass. The rest of us meandered on the sand until we made it back to the Tree of Life, which was a good landmark to tell us when we should go up the hill and back to our car. When we drove away from Kalaloch it did not take long before the world opened up to a nice sun shiny day, but at the beach I am sure that the ocean was still wrapped in a layer of clouds that would keep it nice and cool for the rest of the day.