Olympic National Park - La Push Second Beach

After visiting Lake Crescent we drove through more of Olympic National Park and then out to the coast to visit Second Beach at La Push, which is also part of Olympic National Park.  We decided we could do the 1.4 mile round trip hike to the beach and back, even though we had already hiked quite a bit that day.  This hike took us through some forested areas to a steep incline that led down to a secluded beach.  The beach was beautiful with some little tidepools to look through and views of seastacks.

It ended up being a rather wet hike because it was misty and started raining on the way back, but it was a very nice hike with a beautiful beach at the end.  This hike was steeper than our first hike but still manageable with our kids.  Alden hiked the whole thing on his own again and had a great time finding puddles to splash in along the way.

Alden found his own, perfect sized hole under a tree.

Alden quickly discovered that there were lots of puddles to jump in on this hike.

Anders fell asleep very quickly and slept most of the time we were exploring Second Beach and hiking.

There was tons of driftwood on this beach that Alden had fun looking at.

It was a typical day on the Washington coast, wet and foggy but I actually thought that made it really pretty.

I loved seeing the water running everywhere on the beach.  As Drew put it, it looked like the slope we had come down was bleeding water and it would run in these little streams on the beach into the ocean.  I thought it was really neat to see.

Looking out at one of the views from the beach and then looking back at the piles of driftwood that were there.

Drew had fun moving some of the driftwood around to see how it would affect some of the water flowing into the ocean.

Drew and Alden had fun seeing if they could create a new path for water to flow through.

Alden wanted Daddy to help him lift this rock....he soon realized that the rock was a little too big.

It was so fun walking around on the beach with Alden and seeing things through his eyes.  I always love hearing what he thinks is interesting because it sometimes makes me appreciate the little things, like pretty rocks, pieces of wood or finding puddles to splash in.

So grateful for my wonderful husband who loves to explore and see new places with me!

Alden showing me a shell or rock he found and another view from the other end of the beach.

This picture doesn't actually show it as well as I would like, but if you look closely, you can see a stream of water coming down the hill and over the rocks.  It was one of the streams that just looked like it was bleeding from the hill.

My sweet boys!  I know I take a bazillion pictures of them but I love it!

I found this cool piece of wood that looked like a rock shaped like an arrow until you picked it up and looked at it closer.

We finally decided we needed to head back so that we could get to our hotel and get dinner.

The hike was through very pretty forested areas.

Alden found lots of puddles on the way back that he was very happy to splash through.  This was a beautiful stop with lots of fun for our whole family (well except Anders, but he did enjoy a nice nap).  This was our first day exploring Olympic National Park and I was already loving the beauty and diversity in the park.