This morning we headed south a little bit to get to the trailhead for Shi Shi Beach. Here's a payoff picture so you can see where we ended up:
Those twisty rock formations are huge, and it took quite a bit of rock scaling to get out there and get this photo.
Anyway, for whatever reason (lack of actual research), all we knew is that it was couple miles out to the beach. The trail was rated "moderate" on the signs at the trailhead, but the trail was actually lovely. For most of the hike, the trail mainly looked like this:
And this:
And this (Cantilever Bridge):
But then oh bummer, sometimes also like this:
Maybe the mud was the "moderate" part.
You finally get to the edge and you can hear and then see the ocean and it looks like this (Point of the Arches):
And this (we call this "Chocolate Bunny Rock:):
And then you climb/shimmy down some root-step switchbacks (about a 150-ft cliff…definitely the "moderate part"), sometimes with the aid of a rope, and arrive at the beach and there's no one there. It's a short shimmy down to the beach, and it's stunning.
We climbed out to the twisty rocks (first photo) and then climbed around the tidepools for awhile before climbing back up the cliff to the trail.
Here's a huge bald eagle in a tree way up on top of one of the tall rocks:
We noticed there were hardly any starfish in the whole area, and then we got to one area and there they all were!
And here are what my tennies looked like after the hike:
At one point, okay at several points, my entire foot was submerged in the mud. It's super pretty today but it's been raining a lot for the past couple days so the trail was extra muddy. Plus, you know…rainforest.
