Hole in the Wall

We haven’t spent a night in a tent since last summer. We were itching to get out and spend a night under the stars. We decided that Quentin’s spring break would be the perfect time to plan another trip. Spring time in the Pacific Northwest usually means a lot of rain. We were a little leery of what the weather would bring. We decided to hit the coast again. This time we chose the Hole in the Wall trip in the Olympic National Forest coastal range.
As we left Vancouver, the weather couldn’t have been better. As we reached the trailhead, the skies were still clear with warm temperatures. We began to hike along the beach, but unlike the beaches we’re used to, this one consisted of “shingles” (small cobbles) and black sand. This coast

line was much rockier than any other coast we’ve camped along so far. As we hiked in we had our first route finding at .5 mile as we negotiated Ellen Creek. We continued to the Hole in the

Wall (1.5 miles). We did not make it to this point by low tide, so we had to go up and over the inland route instead of through the hole. We were planning on camping just south of the Chilean

Memorial which is 2.5 miles from the trailhead. The beach hiking here was one of the more difficult hikes I have been on. We had to negotiate over slick boulders, down climb steep rock routes, climb over large trees, and hike through rock beaches that felt like a huge skree field. Don’t get me wrong, it was an incredible experience.
We set camp just south of the Chilean Memorial, and watched the sun set around all the sea

stacks. The night was clear and really warm, so warm in fact, we left the doors open on the tent and listened to the waves crash all night.
The next morning we explored one of the local islands that could only be reached at low tide. One activity we wanted to try this camping trip was fishing for surf perch. The last trip we took to Shi Shi we saw a guy catching them like crazy. Where we camped was a little too rocky, so we made the decision to break down camp and head back towards Hole in the Wall. We got to our second camp spot around noon. We had lunch and then began to fish. About 45 minutes into fishing, I caught a good size red fin surf perch.

Quentin got skunked but gave it his best. After fishing, Quentin and I had a good game of baseball with a ball we found on the beach. We came prepared incase we did catch a fish with lemon and tin foil. Jennifer did an incredible job on preparing the fish and it turned out great.
The following morning I decided to visit the Chilean Memorial. This memorial commemorates one of the countless ships wrecked on this cruel coast – said to have, except for Cape Horn, the most violent seas in the world. The memorial listed all 20 names of the officers and crew that were lost when the ship crashed. Jennifer and Quentin stayed behind to go tide pooling around

the Hole in the Wall. Again, the Washington Coast had incredible sea animals, and Jennifer was again enthralled. While I was gone Jennifer and Quentin had to amuse themselves, so she convinced Quentin to eat a sand shrimp. These are little bugs that hop around on sand’s surface. I guess he’s a real boy now, or else just extremely gullible. He says they don’t taste like shrimp at all.
I got back to camp and we packed up. We headed back to the car and headed home just in time. It began to rain extremely hard on the way home and we were glad we planned the trip the way we did.