Shi Shi Beach in Olympic National Park isn’t hard to get to except for the very end of the hike when a person has to drop down a very steep and exposed hill to the beach. My first night there I camped over the berm in a line of trees. It was pleasant and the berm and trees kept the wind off for a night.
The next day I hiked all the way down to the Point of Arches on the south end of the beach but the tide was up and the point was impassable. When the tide was down I could see a pile of people on the beach just to the south camping and doing beach stuff. I stayed north because I wanted to explore these crazy sea stacks up close and personal.
In my travels I’ve discovered a certain type of person who frequents the national parks and monuments. I always think of them as “Old Time Experts.” Another way of thinking about them is “Bossy Busybodies.” They will walk over and freely give you their expert advice on whatever. Sometimes it is indeed helpful, other times it’s just annoying. I’ve had downright disturbing conversations with some in Yosemite National Park.
There’s of course another type of person who’s about ten times as annoying: the “Can you do my picture?” person. I encountered one at sunrise on another Olympic beach a couple summers ago. That’s truly annoying. I just now looked for a picture of the guy who did this to me, but could only find a picture of the breakfast I ate after doing pictures.
The Aeropress makes delicious Peet’s Coffee. It really made the breakfast five star. Plus that granola stuff gets the job done nicely.
I digress. There were a couple “Old Time Experts camping on the beach where these crazy sea stacks are found so I mostly stayed away and just worked. They did tell me about the remains of a shipwreck a little further north that I ended up exploring a little. Plus near the shipwreck there’s a cave going into the side of the hill. It’s pretty cool.
The sunset I was there had clouds in the western sky that ended up lighting nicely with the last glow of the sun. It made a nice enough picture, but not the spectacular I always look for in my work. I made a print, but it’s in a box downstairs. The picture didn’t quite excite my brain enough. It’s an example of me just working a scene until it can’t be worked anymore but not really getting anything to save and use. It’s still big