The Washington State Hiking Podcast

Hiking the Olympic Wilderness Coast with Tommy Farris

• Episode 110

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 Welcome to the Washington State Hiking Podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, 

and I'm your co-host Craig Romano.

Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners, and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun, and inclusive.

 



 Our sponsor for the month of April is the Olympic Peninsula Visitors Bureau. Craig and I are really excited to bring you some wonderful episodes about the the Olympic Peninsula this month, and thank you so much, Olympic Peninsula for sponsoring.

 Hiking on the Olympic Peninsula spans rainforest valleys, mountain ridges, rugged coastlines, and more families can find easy wooded interpretive trails while dog-friendly hikes offer shared adventures on select forest paths and beaches. Coastal hikes deliver beach exploration and dramatic views. Two shorter day hikes for fresh air or multi-day backpacking trips through lush river corridors, over mountain passes and along remote shores where nature sets the pace for beginning and seasoned explorers alike.

Start your planning today@olympicpeninsula.org.

  our guest today is Tommy Farris from the Olympic Hiking Company, and Tommy has been on the show before. In fact, one of our most popular episodes was episode 41 in December of 2024, where we talked about. Car free hiking on the Olympic Peninsula and the shuttles that they offer that make that possible.

So go back and listen to that one. And that's a topic we may revisit in the future. But today we are talking about the coast of the Olympic Peninsula. And Tommy, it's wonderful to have you back. Thanks for being here, 

and welcome to the podcast, Tommy. 

Thank you both. Yeah. Excited to be back on



so tommy, can you just remind everybody a little bit, just briefly about your story and why we should listen to you when it comes to Olympic Coast hiking? 

Well, it's been a crazy journey, but hard to believe that last year Olympic Hiking co celebrated its 10th year, , anniversary as a commercially authorized tour company, an Olympic National Park.

Uh, back in 2016, I decided that, , I wanted to bring a tour company to Port Angeles that could offer guided tours, shuttles, and backpacking trips. And so. Fast forward to where we're at entering the 2026 season, which is hard to believe. We're already already there. But yeah. We provide naturalist guided day tours throughout the top destinations of Olympic National Park.

We provide trailhead, shuttles, and a lot on the Olympic wilderness coast for point-to-point trailhead shuttles for backpackers. We provide, um. Guided backpacking trips as well as snowshoe tours. So last year we were able to welcome about 10,000 visitors all throughout the Olympic Peninsula and beyond. A little bit to in North Cascades and Mount Rainier.

But, it's truly an honor to be the hometown guiding company here with such a great team of about 27 employees heading into this next season. And so. We have great local experts on our team that whether you're needing a guided tour, a shuttle, or a fully guided backpacking trip, it's been really an honor to be able to operate here on the Olympic Peninsula.

Yeah, for sure. And so listeners, in addition to running this wonderful company, Tommy is from the Olympic Peninsula and really knows these trails really well. . So today we are focusing on the coast. I think to start, it would be great just to talk about. What are some of the unique challenges and opportunities with hikes along the coast?

And kind of geographically? Can you talk about like where we are talking about in Washington? So let's start

but first gen, I think Tommy should tell, tell everyone out there what makes the Olympic Coast so unique and so different from so many other coastlines. Yeah. In the country.



Yeah, absolutely. I mean, to start, when you think about our Pacific coastline here in Olympic National Park, they designate that as the Olympic wilderness coast. And wilderness is a very important world there, uh, word there because it's not something that is gonna have a lot of amenities.

This is a very wild area. You're gonna see, untouched landscapes. From Shishi Beach up near Neah Bay, all the way down to South Beach, near Klock and everything in between. It's not an area where you're gonna have a lot of, uh, easy access. A lot of these beaches require short hikes, of various lengths to get to them.

My goodness. The beauty, you get to see an Olympic National Park on that coastline. You're looking at towering seas stacks. You're able to do tide pooling. You're actually able to do point to point back country hikes, , on the south and North Olympic wilderness coast. I think what's unique. Thinking about the Pacific Coastline and Olympic National Park, there's really an adventure for everyone.

You could have family adventure, you can have multi-day backpacking, and really everything in between Sunsets Day hikes. And that's what really makes the Olympic Coast so special is it's, I think, a really welcoming place despite sometimes being a little rugged and remote. And that would continue even on the Northern Olympic Peninsula.

When you think about places like, uh, tongue Point at Salt Creek recreational area, or hiking to the Dungeness Lighthouse at the Dungeness bit. There's lots of great beaches all throughout the Olympic Peninsula. It's a beautiful thing to have, uh, water on all three sides when you think of the west, north, and even east when you think of the hook canal.

But we can dive in wherever you'd like first, but it's truly a special area to get outside and experience our coastline. 

I just wanted to flag one thing for listeners that you said there, Tommy, you were that like. Yes. A lot of this area is an Olympic National Park, but it's not all, some of it is outside of the park as well, so I would just say don't overlook areas just because they're not in the park, 

which Right.

Yeah. The, you, the Makah Nation and then, uh, DNR properties along, yeah, along the street. Right, exactly. Uh, and, and then there's a few state parks, uh, uh, located here and there as well. Right. 

And yeah. And those of you who've listened for a while and heard Craig and I talk about the Olympic Peninsula before you've heard us talk about this, you know, we're talking about the whole peninsula, including places that aren't in the park, but we'll try to be clear about what is and um.

And isn't. Okay. So Tommy, other than you talked already about like access that typical, many of these beaches require a short or a medium hike to get to you. Some of them are a long drive on a remote road. Um, what are some of the other things that people need to keep in mind when going for a hike on the Olympic Peninsula, especially on the wilderness coast?

Yeah. One of the words we use a lot in emails are on the phone when talking about a coastal adventure is saying as tides and as time permits., Because those are really two factors. , If you're visiting in the winter, you wanna make sure that you have daylight. First of all, that's just a basic, uh, and so if you're visiting a summertime, you can enjoy a nine 30 sunset, which is, which is really nice.

But the tide schedules, that's really the key, uh, thing to be paying attention to when you're doing any type of visit to the, you know, Pacific Coast or anywhere coastal on the Olympic Peninsula, because you want to be thinking, am I gaining real estate? Am I gonna be gaining more ground to hike around if you're doing some tide pooling, or am I losing real estate?

Especially when you're thinking of factors in the wintertime, like king tides. But as we head into the summertime. Tides are always important because if you're planning a sunset hike to second Beach and you've maybe walked around a maybe tide critical area that you didn't even know about, you come back in a couple hours and that could be completely underwater.

And so checking your tide schedule online before any visit is the classic node before you go step. Another thing I think when visiting our beaches throughout the Olympic peninsula is parking lots can fill up in the summertime especially., These areas sometimes have limited parking, and so having another beach in mind, that's the great thing about our Pacific coastline and straight on to Fuca.

If Second beach parking lot is full, maybe you go to Third Beach in LA push just down the road. And so you wanna make sure you know your tides and you wanna make sure you have a nice plan B destination in mind just because, you know it's a very popular place, but a really beautiful, place to experience when you can have those factors planned ahead.

, Tommy, , those are exactly points to take. Consider is the other thing, especially for people who are listening who are not from the Northwest. I know the very first time that I came out to the Olympic coast was in the summertime. And it was foggy. And so I, I'm always telling people when I'm, when I'm doing my, my book talks and such, go in the, in the fall, in the spring,

yeah, and I would love to add to that, just, you know, we do a lot of tours to the whole rainforest in the morning and then we visit the Pacific coast in the afternoon.

And this is where, when you think about preparing for the day, having layers is just an essential in all 12 months of visiting Olympic Peninsula. Because it might be 85 degrees when you leave the whole rainforest and you're thinking, oh my gosh, we're gonna head to the beach. It's gonna be even warmer.

I'm gonna go for a swim. And it's absolutely not. All of a sudden it's 58 degrees at Rialto Beach and everybody's grabbing their rain jacket and their down jacket, and they're bundling up because it's a fog bank or windy and. , When you look at the front line of the Pacific coastline in terms of the western hemlock and sicko spruce trees, you can see the evidence of wind, which may not all occur of course in the summertime, fall, winter, and spring has a lot of that.

But if it's a windy day out there, you're gonna be feeling of that now on the Pacific Coast. So, being ready for those microclimates on the Olympic peninsula, having layers and having, plenty of provisions, that 10 essentials, it's, it's essential when you're going to. Even though it might seem close to do a short hike to Ruby Beach or Rialto Beach, you're still in a wilderness coast.

So always be prepared. 

I think you, you nailed it. That's one of the biggest surprises, there's been plenty of times in the interior when it's 90 degrees here, I'm gonna go out to the coast for the air conditioning, but be prepared for that.

Yes, I've certainly done that too, where I was like, Hmm, I could deal with a cold day right around now. And yeah, it's important to be prepared. Okay, so, um, one other thing I thought about while, while we're talking here too, you is just like. Hiking on the beach and it's more tiring than you think it's gonna be.

If you look at like just the elevation gain, which is often zero, not always, but like some places where you drive right up to the beach and it's flat and then you're like, oh, that's two miles. That will take me an hour or 20 minutes or four hours, or whatever your norm would be. And then, you know, it's slower, but it's also,

you might get distracted, like looking at tide pool animals. So what you were saying, Tommy, about tides, I just wanted to echo how important that is and how, you know, you have to calibrate a little bit of a buffer I think for this type of hiking, which is easy to underestimate. 

Yeah. And on that line, when I am planning a tide, pooling trip, I personally like to arrive at least an hour and a half before that low tide.

Yeah. 

Just so I know that as I'm exploring. And that's an hour and a half. Maybe getting to my destination. So factor in the hike to get to a place like hole in the wall or some of the seas stacks at Ruby Beach. 

Yep. 

That way as you're exploring around, you know, that you're gaining more ground as you start to explore and not losing it.

'cause you just can kind of continue to work your way out towards the ocean, uh, in that, in that way, which is really nice. So, arriving an hour and a half before that low tide people, sometime they're like, okay, I'll low tide's at 12. I'm gonna show up right at 12 o'clock. And I, my day's planned. It's like, no.

It's probably best to, be out there at that point at 12 o'clock, but already maybe have your adventure pretty much completed. That way when that tide's coming in, you can slowly make your way back. 

Yeah, that's really good advice. So, okay, so Tommy, let's talk about some of your favorite coastal hikes and, people who listen to this podcast won't be as surprised that we're putting like an extra emphasis on avoiding crowds and maybe giving some very popular places a break.

So I'd love to hear. You know, we can follow up on this, but like, first of all, some of your favorites, and then two, what's your advice for an iconic place, especially like Rialto or, or Ruby Beach, and for people who really wanna go there specifically, what advice do you have for, for managing crowds and parking and all of that?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, let's start with the iconic spots. They're popular for a reason and I think that. This is where I get into saying time of day, time of year, where you know you're not gonna battle crowds at Rialto Beach. Ruby Beach, or even Shy Shy if you're visiting in October, December, March.

Right? I think those places, yeah, definitely need to be mentioned. What I really like about Rialto Beach is that in terms of a parking lot and access from a road, it's truly the only place where you can park and have flat access to a beach, at least within the national park. The park will actually install a little a DA pathway seasonally.

That really makes it accessible for a lot of users at Rialto Beach, which I like. It's amazing to be able to offer that for the wide variety of business. That's cool. 

Yeah. Yeah. 

Um, 

it makes sense. They remove it in the winter. I get that. 

Yeah. The, the winter, the king tides, I always say it's, , they reshuffle the deck each year with the different driftwood logs.

They get swept in and out., Ruby Beach I really like also as a really family friendly, accessible beach, a bit of a longer path from the parking lot, and it's a little bit out of a. Elevation loss on the way down. But Ruby's iconic, you know you have Abbey Island in the foreground when you arrive there.

Beautiful creek, great tide pooling when the tide's cooperative. And I would say you really want to tie below two feet to get some good tide pooling. And obviously once you get into the minus tides, that's when you really can get into some nice tide pooling. But Ruby Beach is very expansive. You can spread out when it's a low tide, and then it's a great place to storm watch or just be able to watch the waves coming in during a high tide.

In terms of some personal favorites, uh, I, I would be remiss to not include, uh, shy Shi Beach. And what I really like about Shy Shi is it starts up in Ne Bay, which is in the Makah Tribal Reservation, and you would need a Makah recreational pass, which you can purchase annually for $20. Up at Neah Bay before I hike, Shi Shi, I'm gonna try to do a quick visit to the Cape Flattery Trail or the Maca Museum, which is phenomenal.

You're gonna drive past Houck Beach, so you get a lot of variety when you go all the way up to Neah Bay and make it kind of its own adventure day. So you can day hike, to a place called Point of the Arches,

. so from the Shi Shi beach trailhead, it's about a two mile hike to get from Shi Shi beach trailhead to the National Park boundary. Then from there, it's another 2.3 miles to reach the point of the arches, which is best explored during low tide.

If you do that as a day trip, you're looking at a, a pretty healthy, you know, eight mile hiking day, round trip., But you can also backpack there and it's a really nice introductory backpacking, uh, area for those that want to get a wilderness permit. If you can time it to visit point of the arches during low tide, it's really phenomenal.

And then the sunset there is quite beautiful if you stay overnight. So Shy Shi is one of my favorite places. I would also like to give some love to the Ozette coast. , There at the Oze Ranger Station, there's basically a trail network called the Ozette Triangle. You can hike roughly three and a half miles to Cape Lava or three miles to sandpoint one way, or you could do the entire triangle in about a 9.5 mile loop.

That again, is tide dependent when you're doing that three mile section of coast. OZ has a really nice sized parking lot. It's pretty remote given that it's a one, a one-way drive in, off of Highway one 12. So those are kind of some of my, my favorites to explore when I have some time and wanna maybe get a little bit more off the beaten path.

And there's obviously a, a bunch to choose from. The last I would mention, just close to home, since I live in Port Angeles. Only 30 minutes, , from Port Angeles to go visit Salt Creek and to do a sunset at Tongue Point. Beautiful coastal bluff staircases viewing areas. Amazing tie pooling as well. That's just right under your thumb all the time when you can have that right next to Port Angeles.

So 

yeah. For sure. Yeah. I, I would love to know too, Tommy, 'cause I know you've been there more than me. I, I love the Ozette Triangle. 

I was just gonna say it's my favorite. Favorite 

stretches. Yeah. And Shi Shi, both of those. I was like, oh yes. Um, I've never seen Ozette crowded ever. Does does that happen if it's like a Saturday in July?

Like I've never seen more than a handful of cars there personally. 

Well, we, we frequent there a lot because, uh, in the summertime we're often going to Ozette almost on a daily basis with our Trailhead shuttle, either taking hikers from Rialto to Ozette or Ozette to Shihi. So, you know, it can get busy, but in terms of those cultural Trailhead, parking lots, Ozette compared to Shi Shi compared to Third Beach or Oil City, when you think about wilderness hiking, O Z's probably the most forgiving.

And so there's, I would say probably the best. Chance to have kind of a seamless experience there to was at, but like, like you're saying, , it, it's not as crowded as you would see some of the other more popular beaches like Rialto Beach, second Beach or Ruby, just because it is a pretty remote area, , a 20 mile drive off of, highway one 12 and it, it's quite a drive from Port Angeles.

And the other thing, even if there were. Hundreds of people showing up there, it gets dispersed really quickly because you've got three miles in either way, three miles on the beach. One of my favorites from standpoint, you have some on a low tide, probably one of the prettiest stretches of bonafide sandy beach to the south of that.

And I have walked that beach alone, you know, just in heaven. People are out there, you just told our, our secret. But believe me, it's, it's three miles just to get there on boardwalk and it's not gonna become crowded. That, that is just and st and likewise, you can do the same thing once you pop up on the northern area too.

, You can keep hiking, you know, day easily, day hiking until you get to the ozette river as well on, on a low tide and be all by yourself in there as well, you know? 

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I've had the. Opportunity to hike each of the three sections of the Olympic Wilderness Coast and the, the solitude like you're describing once you kind of even just start to go even a mile beyond some of those main points.

It's really incredible and I think that's what makes our, our coastline such a unique place to visit, is that you can have these mainstream destinations like Rialto and Ruby that are. Easy to get to and easy to plan for. But if you're seeking solitude, these visitors are gonna be, uh, visiting each year and it's an amazing thing.

So this distribution of visitors across our coastline is a wonderful thing. And Ozette, that's a, a great spot for those that want to have a little bit more solitude. 

Yeah, for sure. Okay., I wanna ask you a little bit, Tommy, about some of the more. I'm not sure if I wanna say back country or point to point or how we wanna think about that, but we'll get to that in a minute before there are.

Any particular things you think people need to bring with them? I mean, we've had talked in lots of episodes about hiking, safety and like what to bring and all of that, but I'm just wondering if there's anything that you wanna particularly call out for this. 

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, sometimes if a visitor has never been to the Olympic Peninsula and they say, oh, we're going to a beach.

A question we get a lot from our visitors is, should I bring water shoes? And I say, yeah, sure. You can bring some water shoes if you are gonna go in the ocean a little bit or do some tide pooling, but not, not to replace your hiking boots or hiking shoes. The, the good traction on your footwear is very important.

And this isn't always gonna be sandy hiking. It's gonna be some rock hopping. There's gonna be some seaweed or kelp mixed in on some of these rocks to where they can get quite slick, especially during, . More wet times of the year. , So footwear is always where I start. Um, and then when you kind of work your way up, an extra pair of socks is really helpful.

'cause maybe, , a sneaker wave that's not too dangerous, but something that gets your feet wet. That's always something that you may wanna rotate a new pair of socks by the end of the day.. I, we talked about layers. You know, certainly, uh, water resistant layers is always important in case you get some light rain.

So whether that's an outer shell for your jacket or some nice lightweight hiking pants. But really the, the footwear is like a really a key point for me just because, um, there's sometimes small creek crossings to get to another area of interest. You are on more rugged terrain and personally, I guess one other thing we would make an essential for a backpacking trip would be trekking poles.

Especially when you start to kind of get into these long sections of getting into these select tidal flats where having those extra points of contact can truly save your trip. And, just from running the shuttle operations and operating our own backpacking trips, you know, we know there's a number of reportable incidents each year out on the coast just because.

It's really easy to slip, trip, and fall and roll an ankle or, knock your head on a rock if you, if you take a spill. So. I think knowing that you're hiking pace and just like you said earlier, just taking it a bit slower. This isn't where you're gonna bust out your 30 minute miles on the hiking trail.

This is where, some of the slowest mileage you might ever get in your life is hiking in some of these more wilderness sections. And that's a great thing 'cause you're surrounded by nature. You're gonna be seeing ty pools and bald eagles and maybe some sea otters. It's, it's a really cool place to get away from it all.

But you are gonna be moving slower. Um, if there's anything either of you want to add, I always love thinking about other packing list stuff for the coast. 

You know, I, I have a Backpacking Washington book, and in that book I have the entire Olympic Coast and

it's an amazing experience and one of the things I like to tell people, pretty much you said, dispelling some of the myths. I like to always start off showing this beautiful sandy beach and I said, this looks wonderful. I could just walk forever. And then I click to the section just north of the Norwegian memorial where you've got four miles of rocks.

Slick barnacles and, and I'm telling people again that even though you're, you're not doing very much elevation, , this is one of the harder backpacking, stretches my book and, you know, I'm an ultra runner. I wouldn't think about running on the Olympic coast. I've got trekking poles out there.

I've seen people. Coming out bloody shins, you know, sliding on that. So yeah, it's, it's incredibly difficult and you're gonna go slow. So don't try for those epic fastest times on this stretch. , Like you said, that's, that's just as good because there's so much to see,, as far as wildlife and then there's a lot of history, and such.

The one thing I would add though, you were saying for the backpack, and I learned this the hard way too, gloves. Because when you're doing, when you're doing the, um, the overland and you've got a rope and you're coming down to one of those sand ladders and they're all muddy and frayed and everything, those, those gloves are gonna be, uh, handy.

Part of the reason is because there's certain sections of backpacking, the Olympic wilderness coast, that are truly impassable for hours or sometimes even days at a time. When you think of the South Wilderness coast, there's the first high critical area from Oil City hiking North.

Yep. To a spot called Diamond Rock, and it's a two foot restriction, and that can be a complete. Stop for a trip for hours or sometimes days at a time. And so checking those tides and, and gloves is a, is a great one because yeah, and you, you'll be in all sorts of terrain and having your hands on rocks and ropes and rope ladders.

But that's definitely like the, the wilderness areas of those. And if you're. Doing a hike like that. And you want an inexpensive solution for what to bring for gloves, gardening gloves at the Home Depot. Oh yeah. Or Costco. Totally. Just throw those in your pack. Make sure you pack 'em out, or you do gift them to somebody out on trail.

But. You can, you can make, uh, you know, the glove purchase a, a, a nice one if you don't want to get your nice, warm, cozy outdoor research gloves or camp, uh, all frayed and dirty, 

right? Yeah. 

In the wintertime spring and what you're doing, you got again, on, on the south coast, you've got four miles of overland.

You've got mud, this is not meant to scare people away. Uh, it should be like, you understand what you're getting yourself into. The challenge. , It's an incredible stretch.

It's an amazing place. 

Yeah. Uh, I, I would, you know, double down on everything. That both of you said. And the only thing that I would add, Tommy, is , I always wear rubber boots, including backpacking on the Olympic coast.

And it's fine for you guys to laugh at that. I lived in Alaska for many years as, as I think both of you know, and everyone in Alaska owns extra Tufts or bogs. I am an extra Tufts girl. It's not because bogs aren't great, that's just. Whatever. And they're great to have around here too. I always wear them out there and I always see people who are like, oh, that's such a good idea.

And I'm like, yeah, it's, but extra Tufts are really comfortable to , walk in. They're, they're not just like. You know, kind of the random, like Walmart, ghees that may not be as comfortable. So I think that is worth saying. . They have good traction. They're really good for mud. They're great.

If you have to wait, if you're tide pooling, you can. You know, walk across one of those little tidepool rivers really easily without getting your feet wet. So I, I don't know that I would suggest someone buy those just for one hike on the Olympic coast, but if you have them, bring them for sure. 

Absolutely.

And you know, it will take everything for me, not just to let's go into the full pack list for a backcountry trip. But, uh, one other thing, just speaking to the mud, um, you know, hiking Gators are a nice, another lightweight option, and we talked about shy. Shy, and I would not be happy with myself if I didn't mention that.

Shi Shi. That two mile stretch from the trail head from Ne Bay just to getting to the park boundary is known to be one of the most muddy sections, uh, of hiking on the Olympic Peninsula. Yeah. And then when you go further south to Ette and you see all these boardwalks, you're like, oh, 

what a 

good idea that's, they had boardwalks.

So it's definitely something to mention

for sure. Okay, Tommy, so let's go a little further for people. I love that we've really raised the point of how special and unique this area is and how it is challenging hiking despite not having a ton of elevation gain.

So I think those are super important points. Alright, so for people who are like, this is an awesome adventure, I wanna experience this like multiple days with solitude.. Can you talk a little bit about like how to do the logistics of that, and what things to think about? I mean, I would say actually that, especially an out and back,, backpacking trip is a great way to try backpacking for the first time.

, If you go. Just a couple miles. That's awesome. Right. But for now, let's say I want to either do a longer day hike, point to point or multiple days. How do the logistics of that, maybe even before that, like what are some of your favorite routes for that? And then kind of how do make the logistics work?

Yeah. Where, where you always start. Anytime you're thinking about a back country trip. An Olympic National Park is recreation.gov. That's where they put for sale all of the wilderness permits, and specifically an Olympic from May 15th through October 15th. If you're looking at a backpacking window, then, uh, you would go to recreation.gov on April 15th at 7:00 AM and that's when they release all those backcountry permits.

Now there's some areas of the coast that have quotas, where there's only so many campsites available, and there's some that are quota free, which, make it a lot easier to do a backcountry reservation. So that's where you start. You wanna make sure before you start daydreaming about hiking and camping at this exact spot.

Is it available? That's the first step. Uh, secondly, I am a huge fan of visiting my local wilderness information center, here in Port Angeles. The wilderness Rangers at the, at the wic,, are absolutely so fantastic and really knowledgeable. They're a great place to, ask those trip planning questions, but they're not gonna plan your trip, meaning that they have so many questions that they answer on a daily basis.

So do your homework. Plan your route. Maybe identify your top five or 10 questions, and either email those to the Wilderness Information Center if you don't. If you don't live nearby. Or make that visit, especially, you know, in advance of your trip. You don't rely on a, on a day of visit,, in Olympic National Park, there is a requirement this year that they're gonna be moving forward to bear canisters required for all backcountry trips, which is great.

If you wanna take the stress of, oh no, is the park gonna be out of bear cans when I get there? 'cause you, they do have those available to rent. I really like the bear vault. It's a really, great durable, uh, bear canister that you can purchase and have on your own. And that way you can pre-pack your meals and have your backpack ready and you're just one step closer to being ready to, to jump into the back country versus having to do gear repacking and things like that.

Now that's the logistical side of things and that, that sounds like a lot. But you know, you have resources, there's great books, there's great, you know, blogs, there's podcasts like this. There's the Wilderness Information Center. , Do that research before you go, but then once you go, that's where the magic happens.

And so when you think about the Olympic Wilderness Coast specifically for overnight backpacking, I really feel like you can't go wrong with any of the sections. If you go on the South Coast between Third Beach and Oil City. If you were to hike that all the way through,, I would say the section closest to Oil City, which is, uh, closer to the mouth of the whole river.

That's gonna probably be one of your more rugged sections, as Craig was mentioning, the overland trails. The more, critical tied areas that are harder to pass because of, they're more restrictive, you know, lots of ups and downs with rope ladders and ropes. It's, more of an obstacle course. , So that's kind of how I describe the South Coast.

As you get close to the third beach, whether you start from third beach and hike south, or you're hiking north from Oil City, it gets a little easier. And even if you just wanted a day hike or out and back to totally act point, uh, from Third Beach Trailhead, it's a really, really great spot. If you move north to Rialto Beach, which is on the other side of the Ute River, there's obviously some great, uh, through hiking all the way up to Oze or Shishi.

And so really you can kind of pick, uh, a variety of campsites. And to your earlier point, Jennie, when we're talking about slower pace. You know, maybe you hike 10 miles on a back country day when you're in the mountains, but maybe you back that down to maybe five or six miles a day when you're thinking about a wilderness coast through hike.

If you're doing point to point hiking, you either need to have really great friends that are willing to pick you up and drop you off. Uh, our company, Olympic Hiking Co. We do offer a Trailhead shuttle service where from April 1st to the end of September. We have a route that serves every trail head on the Olympic wilderness coast.

So you can also do that where you park at your ending trail head. Let's say you wanna end your hike at Rialto Beach. You can get shuttled up to Oze so that way you can hike back to your vehicle at your pace. And that way if you get caught by a tide, you need to wait longer. You're not, oh my gosh, I have to catch this shuttle.

Nope, your, your vehicle's waiting there for you. And then it was at, that's a good 

pro tip 

to do the shuttle 

at the beginning instead of the end. Yeah, 

and Tommy, I have to mention too, I gotta make sure to get your shuttle service. Updated into my books, so that's great. When I originally was started, and that was the thing I remember, we need to have that.

And I, I had, I had a good friend in Forks help me out, but not everyone's gonna have it. Uh, and, and I should, you know, Shane was plugged here because, um, when you're looking for those books and resources, my backpacking Washington book has the Olympic Coast and my brand New third edition Day hiking, the Olympic Peninsula is gonna be hitting the shelves. Later on this. Spring , I take a very, very liberal, uh, approach to the Olympic coast. I started the mouth of the Columbia River, so I've got Long Beach Peninsula in there, all the way up across the Strait of Wa d Fuca.

So definitely pick that book up. , Go to your, your wick and then Tommy can help you out. Uh, maneuver that coast. So there's, there's three, three good sources for you. , 

Absolutely. And I, we'll do a plug for a plug is that if anyone's needing to book a shuttle, you can always find us just@hikeolympic.com.

All of our shuttles are online bookable, and what we see a lot is when people book their wilderness permit, uh, after April 15th, they'll then book their shuttle and yeah, I always just recommend making that first day a very logistics focused day. Just get to the, you know, get to the parking lot, get to your trailhead, get to the beach.

And that way when you wake up the next morning, it's like, okay, the next morning we're gonna start our hike and we're gonna manage the tides with this game plan. You know, the low tide that this time. So we're gonna start our hike either really early in the morning or we don't have to worry because it's later in the afternoon, but the tide is going to tell you how to build your route.

That's really the North star when you're planning a coastal backpacking trip. Yep. Is that, what's the tide doing? It's gonna change by about an hour each day, give or take. And just know that you're usually working with your best daytime low. In the summertime, you're trying to build a trip around and really trying to be at those spots at or ahead of that low tide.

Especially when thinking, when you're losing real estate on the coast, when you're hiking, it's not always the most fun feeling to watch water get closer to you, 

not great. And that's so important. You can't overemphasize that.

People aren't thinking about these things, those tides, because those tidal influences aren't just on the coast. They're going up those creeks and waterways. And so if there was anything that was questionable there, you might not even have thought about it. So definitely have those times that those times, uh, tide charts with you.

Don't rely on your phone. You're not gonna, you're not gonna have, , cell service in a lot of these places. So have it printed out , and know that, and like you said, and that's how you're gonna plan it. And if you have to get up. You're going on a long stretch. If you have to get up at five in the morning to get around, it's either that or you're not gonna be doing that hiking until noon or something like that.

Yeah. And on that point. Sprinting out your tide charts and bringing that topographic map that is just, they have to be hand in hand. It's something that you're looking at every snack break. It's all right, there's the tide critical area. Here's my tide.

You're constantly looking at that, and to your point, one of the things that I would love to mention, kinda as we worked our way up north, we're talking Rialto to OZ. That section's a little bit. More straightforward in terms of less obstacles and overlands, but still very slick rocks. Once you go Ozette to Shi Shi, you get more of those overlands.

It's a little bit of a hybrid between, you know, Rialto Ozette and then the South Coast between Third Beach and Oil City. But the biggest thing I want to mention between hiking to Oze and Chi Shy is the Ozette River, and specifically thinking about spring hiking or backcountry hiking at at that section because.

Forwarding the Ozette River. If you don't have a really low tide, especially in the spring, with all that melt coming down from the mountains, you're gonna be in a really deep river and a lot of trips will sometimes get flagged or even canceled at the Rangers deem that river crossing to be too high for either early spring hiking or even late hiking in the fall after some, you know, atmospheric River event that we could sometimes have out here.

Good point, . I, I worked for Green Trails Maps , for years as well. We have,, a beautiful, uh, Olympic Beach coastal strip map, uh, that shows all those points. A good waterproof. Map that you can pull. It shows the whole coast with all those spots. Okay. This is problematic. This is, and it also mentions the depth of, of when you can get around those tides and shown that, and it's so important. Uh, you, you, you can't cut corners on this. 

Okay, Tommy, before we let you go, this has been, this has been awesome and I am ready to drive out and go for a hike on the Olympic coast right now.

Oh, absolutely., I would love to know, is there anything else you wanna share with folks or any kind of top tip that you have for visiting the Olympic Coast for hikers? 

Yeah, I think we really, really covered it. It's almost a great thing just to kind of recap some of these notes. So start with your Tide schedule.

This is, not only just so important for managing your day, but it's really the map of how you plan your whole day and experience on the Pacific coastline. So tide schedule, thinking about your footwear. This isn't your typical Sandy beach. This is gonna be a beach that's rugged. Thinking about,, like you've mentioned Jennie, you know, what kind of water resistant or waterproof footwear can you have that has good traction, maybe bringing trekking poles.

I would also think that when you're thinking about these tide areas, you know, tide pooling so much fun to go tide pooling. I mean, this is an adventure that should be on everyone's bucket list if you're visiting the Olympic Peninsula. If you don't have time to go all the way to the Pacific Coast for whatever reason.

Go visit Salt Creek, uh, 30 minutes west of Port Angeles. You don't have to drive an hour and a half to two hours from Port Angeles to experience tide pooling. Yeah. But that's something really special. And I think maybe something we didn't cover specific to tide pooling. , We talked a little bit about it, but really when you can get into those minus tides during those daylight hours, that's really when you're gonna start to really see a lot more of that.

Just incredible Marine. A life is scattered throughout these rocks. And I think another thing too, when you're thinking about pipe pooling, and so look, but don't touch scenario, you know, these are very sensitive creatures. You wanna be very careful where, where you walk, uh, you're gonna be in areas where there's gonna be lots of rocks covered in muscles or barnacles.

So being really sensitive to when you are exploring these areas. When people think tide pooling, I think when they close their eyes and they're like, okay, tide pooling. I'm standing in a tide pool and that's why I need water shoes. It's like, nope. You're probably on a really dry rock observing it from a nice distance to where uh, you're not disturbing that marine life, but.

That being said, if there's anything to do on the peninsula, tide pooling is great. Sometimes the tides don't cooperate. Sometimes you're gonna go to Salt Creek and it doesn't get below four and a half feet during the day, and that's fine too. I think the thing about tides, uh, and when you think about planting itineraries on the peninsula, don't get wrapped up of like, well, we normally go to sunset at this time, or we usually go to the beach in the afternoon and I want to do tide pooling.

The coast is gonna dictate your experience, meaning. It's the tides, and those are the tides you're gonna get for when you visit that day. So just be open-minded if, if it's king tides in the wintertime, observe it from afar safely, from a beautiful viewpoint. And if it's, you know, low tide, sunset, I mean, that's a really magical thing to plan for.

So just. Be adaptable. Use your resources, talk to rangers, read guidebooks, you know, read some blogs, um, and, and have fun. And these are places that are, are great to explore with families when you're south of the whole river. And the clay beaches, including ruby, it's dog friendly on a leash. , 





Before we wrap this up, about maybe one of your most magical experiences out there for me. I know there was a time period where I made it a point during the summer, during the summer solstice to go to the coast for that longest day.

To me, that was always one of the most magical things about being out. On the coast that time of year. You've been on the coast far more, far more times than Jay and I have combined. , What. If you could say maybe a couple of your most magical experiences out there, whether it was a wildlife observation or just, everything came together.



Yeah. Well, I think your lead in is great because usually it's tied to a sunset. And when you think about being on the Pacific coast with that unobstructed western view, unless, I mean, you could always have some fog, but, and cloud cover.

Those magical sunsets on the coast where you just, it just, the colors just are out of this world, and it just seems like for a moment, you're in a completely different. Planet, uh, when you have that sunset out there and to see the, the oranges and purples and pinks to slowly transition into that soft evening light, to have the stars come out, when it's, uh, allowable, uh, to do a campfire, making sure that you check your burn band, which does usually happen this summer from July and August, but those nights where you can go from sunset to starry skies.

For me, I think some of my favorites. I think I can give you two examples of the same place, and it kind of shows you the diversity of the ventures., Shishi Beach, I've camped at point of the arches. Um, it's a place that, , you'll have a lot of other campers. It's a nice little social atmosphere down there.

But to see. Sunset out there with those seas stacks at point of the arches, and to be able to camp overnight and pop your head outta the tent and look at the stars, it's, it's magical. But I think for me, one of my favorite hiking experiences I've ever had on the coast was actually a November low tide sunset that I did at point of the arches where I purposely day hiked.

Right When I got to Shishi Beach and I had to do the, , the final two mile hike to point of the arches, I was the only hiker, um, on the beach. And, you know, 'cause this was November, uh, and the, the tide and the waves just swept clean the beach perfectly. And it, it just, I could not tell the difference 'cause it was a little bit of overcast day.

You're just like. Where does the ocean start and where does the sky the sky begin? Like you just couldn't really quite see which world we were really a part of. Uh, so being able to do a low tide, sunset hike to point of the arches, and to get out there and to have these kind of grayish blue colors mixed in with these colorful sea stacks that have kind of all the different, you know, allergies and sea life on them, it's just, it was really dramatic colors and great for photography and great for solitude.

Um. And that being said, that low tide, uh, hike back was great. And then wearing the headlamp at night and hiking through the mud of Shi Shi, uh, in the pitch black, which is its own fun kind of adventure. Yes. But that's a, that's an authentic peninsula adventure. If you're not picked in mud at 11 o'clock at night at Shi Shi beach, what are you doing?

You know? So 

gear, you haven't even been there. 

Yeah, exactly. 

Oh, well, Tommy, thank you so much for coming back and for sharing. All of this great knowledge about the Olympic Coast and listeners will have, um, Tommy's company, Olympic Hiking Company, the shuttle link in the show notes also. So thank you so much, Tommy.

Yeah, thank you both. 



 Thank you so much to the Olympic Peninsula Visitors Bureau for sponsoring us for the month of April and making this podcast possible so we can bring you even more wonderful hiking episodes. Thank you Olympic Peninsula, 

Thank you listeners and see you next week. I.



..

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Jennie Thwing Flaming

Host
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Craig Romano

Co-host