5/9, Saturday. A leisure morning. Despite the usual wait, ferry is always a relaxing way to start a vacation.
After picking up a bear can, wilderness permit for 2 nights, at the ranger station in Port Angeles, we had lunch at Hurricane Ridge. Weather was perfect. View is even better. Not too many people at the picnic area (a short drive from the visitor center). Saw one deer.
Destination today is Shi Shi Beach. It is a long drive. Buy a $10 annual visitor permit at a grocery store in Neah Bay (the closest town, and the most NW town in continental US). Drive SW (almost all paved) to the trailhead. Unload the gears. Drive back to the first house, pay $10 to park in the yard, instead of parking at TH. We didn't start hiking until almost 5pm. Trail is only ~2 miles, in a much better shape in the Makah land. As soon as it hits national park boundary, it's no longer maintained. Very muddy. As we hiked down the steep slope to the beach, we could smell cooked fish. It turned out to be massive amount of Velella stranded on the beach, now rotting. It could be nauseating to some. 
The north end has beautiful rock formations almost mystical. A small beach north of the first sea stack. The beach is smooth and over a mile long. There're about 3 spots that have good amount of water coming down the hill, however all brownish. Look for buoys hanging in the trees. We camped all the way south to the last visible water source. Dead Velellas went as inland as to the creek bed. A few camping sites in the wood, well protected. Plenty of space on the beach. The drift logs are easy to set fire on. Too overcast for a good sunset.
5/10, Sunday. I was surprised to see stars at night. More cloudy in the morning. Walked to the Father and Son at Point of Arches. No mussels. Packed out and dropped off the bear can at the ranger station.
Drove to Lena Lakes TH. ~8 miles in on Hamma Hamma Rd. All paved. The 3 mile hike to Lower Lena Lake is easy and gentle grade. Met a lot of families with small children. 1 mile later is the national park boundary, where a sign for no fire nailed on a tree. Met one hiker coming down. He said "It's a push. No bugs, no people". He was right on all 3 accounts. The trail gets rough and steep at times. At mile 7, finally saw the much expected lake. Pretty, but it was too cloudy to get a better view of the mountains. Camped on the little peninsular. Tried fishing: no catch. Rained at night. No stars.
5/11 Monday. Light rain. Mist obscured the mountains, but added serenity to the area. If not for the rain, I would liked to hike up to Mt Lena. Carrying rain gear in PNW is always a good idea. Most of the hike down was in drizzle. Met only one elderly group having lunch at a boulder by Lower Lena Lake. Otherwise, uneventful.Stopped by Nisqually NWR on the drive back around the sound. Walked the easy boardwalk. Big trees, lush. Saw some goldfinch (or yellow warbler?). Heard many more birds, despite of the highway noise and power trimmer.
