Ruby Beach is where the Olympic Peninsula puts its raw side on show. A short, steep trail leads down from the highway through spruce and fern to a wide shore of dark pebbles, strewn with enormous bleached driftwood logs, with tall sea stacks standing offshore and a creek spilling out across the stones. The name comes from the pinkish tint in the sand, said to be caused by tiny garnet crystals, and when the sun hits wet pebbles the colour is genuinely warm. In the distance, Destruction Island and its old lighthouse, built in the 1890s, sit on the horizon like a model.
The beach belongs to Olympic National Park, which here protects a long strip of the Pacific coast, and it is wild in the proper sense. The surf is cold and strong, the logs are heavy enough to crush a person if a wave moves them, and the tide changes fast, so you do not want to wander far along the rocks without checking the tables. Tide pools among the stacks hold starfish, anemones and crabs, and you may see bald eagles overhead and seals offshore. The smell is of salt, kelp and wet spruce.
Riding in is part of the experience. US 101 follows the coast from Forks southward, through temperate rainforest of huge moss-covered trees, and the road is well surfaced, curving gently with the land and breaking out occasionally to views of the ocean. It is among the wettest places in the continental United States, so be ready for rain at any time of year and for fog that can fall quickly. Summer is the driest and busiest season, but even then mornings can be cold and grey. Logging trucks use the road, so give them room, and watch for elk crossing in the early morning.
Forks, about twenty-seven kilometres north, is the nearest town of any size, a logging community of less than four thousand people that found new fame as the setting for a series of vampire novels. It has fuel, cafes, and motels, and you should fill up there or to the south before you come, because services along this stretch of coast are few. The Hoh Rain Forest, a short way inland, is worth the detour if you want to see ferns and moss in unlikely quantities. Bring a warm layer even in August, and boots for the stony trail.