Last week we talked about how cars are for going places. Remember the slogan Chevrolet used in its advertising: “See the USA in your Chevrolet”? One of the places they tended to include in their ads were national parks. That’s because they are as American as baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s budget axe has started to hit the National Park Service. In my state, Washington, the cuts have not yet been big enough to obviously impact our parks because winter is a slow season, but next summer could be a different story.
“It creates a very uncertain future for our national parks,” said Rob Smith, the northwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. He went on to question “whether facilities like bathrooms will have enough rangers to clean them, whether someone will be at visitor centers or search and rescue will be adequate.” He thought it was also possible that some campgrounds and trails would close (Goldstein-Street, 2025).
Highway 101 up to Kalaloch is the road less traveled
Among Washington’s national parks, the one surrounding Mount Rainier may get more tourist traffic, but I am partial to the Kalaloch beaches on the Olympic National Park’s western edge.
At least in my experience, it gets a lot less crowded at Kalaloch, perhaps because it is farther away from major metropolitan areas than is Rainier.
Kalaloch is almost 180 miles away from Seattle, mostly on winding two-lane roads. You can get to Rainier in half that amount of time, and for a larger portion of time by freeway.
The West Coast is blessed with many spectacular beaches, but I would place the Kalaloch area in my top-three list. Part of what makes this stretch of coastline so interesting is that it doesn’t just have one beach — there are a handful of them dotted along Highway 101. They can be dramatically different in character.
For example, whereas the beaches around Kalaloch Lodge and campground have vast expanses of sand and driftwood, other beaches a few miles north are dominated by magnificent rock sea stacks and tide pools.
Introducing children to a whole new world
People of all ages can find something to enjoy, but the Kalaloch beaches seem to be particularly popular with families. This makes sense to me. In thinking back about my own childhood, one of the things I most appreciate was being introduced to national parks. They opened my eyes to the possibility that there was a world beyond the asphalt jungle of suburbia.
From strange rock formations to human mating rituals
Perhaps the most popular tourist destination is Ruby Beach, but I prefer a more obscure place dubbed “Beach 4.” You have to use a rope to climb down to the shore, but I find it to have more fascinating tidepools and rock formations . . . and fewer people to bump into.
That said, sometimes I enjoy people watching. When I want to do so I go to Kalaloch Beach, particularly around sunset. Beachgoers reveal the contours of their lives in more ways than they might imagine.
I hope that the sun doesn’t set on our national parks. To my mind, they are one reason why America so great.
NOTES:
For more information on the Kalaloch beaches, check out the National Park Service and the Kalaloch Lodge websites.
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RE:SOURCES
- Goldstein-Street, Jake; 2025. “National Park Service firings hit Mount Rainier, Olympic, North Cascades.” Washington State Standard. Posted Feb. 20.
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