Imagine a place where the ocean waves crash against large rocks protruding from the water. A stream running from the hills above. Large driftwood logs washed ashore over the years. This place exists in Northern Washington state. Its name is Ruby Beach.
Ruby Beach is located on the Northern Pacific coast of Washington, just west of Olympic National Park on Highway 101. We recently visited this spot for the 3rd time with Angelica’s parents. Her parents and us love to take day trips to see some of the many sites in North West Washington. Ruby Beach is probably our favorite.
Lake Crescent
Traveling Washington Highway 101 is a site seeing adventure. There are many beautiful places to stop and see on this highway. One of the first places we stopped on this adventure was Lake Crescent. This lake located on the northern edge of Olympic National Park is a beautiful stop traveling this highway. The highway runs right along the southern shore of this lake. There is at least one stop off place along this shore. But just east of the lake you can veer off onto East Beach Rd. This road will of course lead you to East Beach. This beach is a great stop in your journey. And it has picnic areas so you can stop and have lunch with a gorgeous view of the lake. This was our first stop on this adventure.
Forks
After leaving Lake Crescent, we made our way to Ruby Beach. We wanted to have plenty of time
Ruby Beach
Ruby Beach is truly a site to behold. The walk down offers a really nice overlook of the beach. Plus, there is a bench to stop and rest at. The trip down is a pretty good walk. It eventually leads to a path through the driftwood before making it to the beach itself.
The massive rock formations in the water and on the beach provide seemingly endless photo opportunities. We were fortunate to be there at low tide where you could walk right up to one of the large ones there. This large rock formation one really large rock in the center and several smaller ones surrounding it. It even has a small archway facing the ocean.
Just beyond this formation is a truly massive rock farther out into the water. It is practically an island surrounded by high cliffs. It would be awesome to go out to it, but it would probably very dangerous to try.
The beach itself is more stony than sandy. Which is nice because you don’t end up with sand everywhere.
There is a seemingly endless supply of driftwood logs on the beach. Many of these logs are enormous in size. And probably at least a century old. Many of these logs provide great seating areas to just sit and enjoy the beauty of the Pacific.
It would be great to spend most of a day exploring this beach and everything on it. But we had to move on, there was more places we wanted to see.
A Big Cedar
Our next stop for the day was the Duncan Cedar. This is the largest western red cedar in the world. It looks to be mostly dead, but there are some live branches growing out the top of it. The trunk of this tree is truly massive and is a pretty cool site to see. It is quite a journey from the highway down narrow gravel roads. We actually missed a turn going out to it. We failed to see a tree that had “tree” spray painted on it marking the road to this cedar. But with the help of google maps we finally found it.
Hoh Rain Forest
The last stop of the day was a quick look at the Hoh Rain Forest. A rain forest in Washington? Yeah, that was my thought. It is a lush green thick forest. There are crystal clear streams running through it. And lots of moss growing on everything. We just spent a few minuets here. It was getting late and we had a big drive back.
Though we were all very tired. It was a great day out with Angelica’s parents and us. We hope to take a few more of these day trips with them while in the area.
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