Ruby Beach
IBA (Important Birding Area)
Directions: From Forks, travel 27 miles south on US 101 to trailhead within Olympic National Park. Ownership: Olympic National Park
Trail Distance: 0.2 mile trail, and more than 4 miles of beach
Difficulty: easy, avoid beach walking in high tides
Fees/Permits: none
Notes: Kid-friendly, dogs allowed on leash, restrooms available.
From a bluff top trailhead, hike through a salt-sprayed maritime forest for .2 mile to the beach set before contorted sea stacks and Abbey Island just offshore. If it’s a low tide (be sure to check tide charts to avoid wading deep water) consider hopping across Cedar Creek and walking 3 miles north along the beach beneath a series of bluffs to the mouth of the Hoh River. In a low tide (be sure to check tide charts to avoid becoming trapped) you can also round a headland and hike south to Beach 6.
Along the beach watch for black oystercatchers, black turnstones, rock sandpipers, and Northwestern crows. In the surf look for surfbirds, tufted puffins, common murres, pigeon guillemots, Brandt’s cormorants, rhinoceros auklets, and sooty shearwaters. On blufftop snags and trees look for perched bald eagles. Brown pelicans frequently fly over the area as well.
