The First Days are Always Exciting

>"Hole in the Wall" just north of Rialto Beach allows visitors to cross through the passage and take in the tide pools at low tide.

In all of my positions in new places, this is the first time I could start relaying initial impressions right from the beginning. Starting a new job like this is so exciting on so many levels. It is a new park, a new story, and a new culture. When you learn this much this quickly, there is much excitement. I have been at enough parks now where you can't help but make a few notes.

The view from the sea level waterfront in Port Angeles makes the little town a great tourist destination.

I took advantage of the near perfect weather on Thursday to walk 1.5 miles north on Rialto Beach. After walking through "Hole in the Wall" and exploring a few tide pools, I caught up with an older couple as we crossed Ellen Creek.







They were from Germany, but had spent many years in the United States. We talked about jobs and the economy (who isn't these days?) and the lady just sighed. "We just took a trip through British Columbia and traveled on the ferry to Port Angeles," she said. "Compared to Victoria, Port Angeles looked like a third-world country".

An inmature bald eagle flies northbound along Rialto Beach.
It has been several years since I was in this area so I had no instincts to be anything other than objective. It is always thought provoking to hear the perspective of another.

After I left them, I wandered to the north jetty along the Quillayute River. It lies on the opposite shore of the tribal community La Push.

A pair of seagulls join all the rest of the life watching a Rialto Beach sunset.

I sat and waited for a Bald Eagle perched on a snag to make his move, but the only other movement were two other eagles, a couple of seals and a handful of cormorants in the river.

A Rialto Beach sunset.

Just two miles from where I am spending the summer, this jetty may make a good place to hang out.