Olympic National Park - Ozette

    We drove to Lake Ozette, which in the 1890’s was a homesteading community of about 130 families.  The community included a school, church, stores, and a post office.  Today, it has a national park ranger station, a campground, and a boat launch.  We took the Cape Alava trail.  The 3.1 mile trail consisted of boardwalk, stairs, and gravel, so it was an easy hike through the coastal forest.

The beginning of the Cape Alava trail at Lake Ozette.

Much of the trail was boardwalk or wooden stairs.

There were some amazing snags and huge trees along the way.

    Cape Alava is basically the most northwestern point of the Olympic Peninsula.  It was once home to the Makah Indians.  These Ozette peoples were a sea mammal hunting culture that dated back 2000 years.  Cape Alava was the site of a village that had been covered by a mudslide about 300 years ago.  In 1970 a storm surge exposed the bank containing the hidden village.  In the 70’s archaeologists excavated the site and found about 55,000 artifacts.  Most of the artifacts are now in the Makah Museum in Neah Bay.  We also went to the museum, which has a full size replica of a longhouse.  From Cape Alava we hiked three miles south along the beach to Sand Point.

Cape Alava

A small replica longhouse.

The three mile trek down the beach from Cape Alava to Sand Point begins.

The beautiful rocky beach

There were many tide pools to check out.

Cool critters in the tide pool.

Small anemones

Even a large jellyfish that washed on to the shore.

A few other creatures were aloft.

There were many sea stacks, some with holes carved through them.

Sea stacks and pounding waves.

Although the Makah were whalers, I don't think this is a whale they caught.

Really awesome rock formations.

Sculpted rock.

I really found these rocks cool, that is why I have so many pictures.

More beach

Getting closer to Sand Point.

At Sand Point.  We started at that far off point.

    We hiked back to Ozette by the Sand Point trail.  It was another three mile trail of boardwalk and gravel that led through the coastal forest.

Another three mile coastal forest walk back to Ozette.