Reconnect

I like nature. It is why I like to garden. Gardening is a way for me to commune with nature. Growing things, getting dirt under my fingernails, digging in the ground are all ways for me to connect with my love of nature, my heritage, my culture, my humanity.

Yeah, I have moments of full on hippie...

Anyways, I like to garden. I like to go camping as well, which is what I was doing this last weekend when some schmuck stole my chickens. (hope you get pecked to death (hippie moment over)).

Camping is the total opposite of gardening. When you garden you try to make a mark, you try to coax the land into doing what you want it to do. You try to let nature have its way, but you try to make sure its way coincides with your way.

When you are camping, you are trying to let nature have its way all the time and leave no trace that you were even in it. The boyfriend and I went to Forks, WA.

 
Larger Map

I am sure that most people will instantly think of Twilight when I mention Forks, but the truth of the matter is that it is a lovely little town, close to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Rialto Beach. Twilight has definitely become infused with the small town feel of Forks, but it has also brought much needed tourists and work to the town. Which has lost many jobs due to the decline in logging in the area.  It is hard to go from one end of a block to the other end without seeing a shop named after the Twilight phenomenon.

We stopped in at the weirdest Thriftway on the planet. The Forks Thriftway is the main store in the area so it carries EVERYTHING. Camping, gardening, food, office supplies, clothing, BBQing... Pretty much everything you could need without having to drive 60 miles.

Rialto is about a 20 minute drive from Forks and since the boyfriend and I showed up on 4th of July weekend, it was packed. We ate then took a wander down towards Hole-in-the-Wall. The boyfriend wasn't up for the whole hike up the beach, which is about 4 miles in total, but we got pretty far before he wanted to turn around. If you have a chance, I recommend taking that hike, it is lovely and when you get to the destination, it is pretty impressive!

 I've been to the Washington Coast many times and I never get bored with the experience. I love the quiet of it. I love the grayness of it.  I love the feeling of something bigger in the world just past the horizon. Rialto Beach is serene, even when it is covered in tourists like a picnic blanket covered with ants in the summer time. It causes people to quiet down and become more introspective.

There were quite a few families on day/overnight hikes to the campgrounds up the beach and although my pictures looked solitary there were quite a few people walking up and down the beaches. If you are looking for the best time for solitary excursions, you definitely want to come in the winter. It is beautiful in the winter time, albeit cold, rainy and windy.

So it is a trade off. The winter storms are lovely to watch if you are snuggled up in a cabin somewhere in Kalaloch. But if you want a walk on the beach it can be a miserable affair. Or you deal with the crowds in the summer. I tend to like the winter more, but I am happy to come to the beach at anytime of the year!

The boyfriends parents have a bit of land right outside Forks, so we set up base camp there. The first night we heard mice and ravens and coyotes. The second we heard owls and herons. From the base camp it was a 15 minute drive to Rialto Beach.

You could hear the surf crashing in the night.