Family Adventures: Shi Shi Beach
The Burnett girls on a backpacking adventure this summer.Two-mile long Shi Shi is the northernmost beach of the Olympic National Park’s coastal strip. Tide-pooling, beach-combing, bird-watching, lazing, building sandcastles, or telling stories around the campfire, Shi Shi has something for everyone. And the distance of two miles one-way is something Hayden can do on his own, although the final descent to the beach can be steep and muddy from what I’ve read.
Once on the beach, you can camp right on the wide open sand, or for a more private setting or protection from a storm, you can choose a forested site. There are two creeks, Petroleum Creek and Willoughby Creek, either of which you can filter water from, so you don’t need to carry water. There are also pit toilets.
The most talked-about, most photographed feature of the beach, hands down, is the magnificent Point of Arches, a mile-long natural anomaly of sea stacks, arches, and jagged rocks you can explore and tide-pool at low tide.
A note that deserves extra attention… Shi Shi is as rugged and wild as it is beautiful, so BE CAREFUL! Bring tide tables! An incoming tide can trap you if you plan to explore the headlands. And be respectful of the surf and rips!
Also, camping permits and bear canisters are required. You can get both at the Wilderness Information Center in Port Angeles.
Before or after your camping trip at Shi Shi Beach, it sounds worth a side-trip to Cape Flattery. The trail head is only a few miles up the road from the Shi Shi parking area. A short 1/2 –mile trail leads to a platform overlooking the western-most point of the contiguous United States.
All photos courtesy of the Danielle Burnett.
I love those pictures (the one where they do the same pose years and years later)!
Belated happy anniversay to your parents!