It's a compelling scene, made more so by the fact that the moon is rising over the Pacific. We're camped on Third Beach. In the morning, the tide drains the beach. It's as if a mischievous god has pulled the plug on the sea. We wander among boulders plastered with sea stars, anemones and barnacles.
Raccoons scurry about, crunching crabs.
Black-tailed deer sample the kelp. The screams of oystercatchers break the stillness. Ghostly Graveyard tombstones tower in the mist. Third Beach lies in the middle of the longest stretch of untouched coast in the Lower 48, most of it within Olympic National Park. A saw blade of headland and beach, the coast is rugged but accessible.