Ruby Beach Sea Stacks Sunset, Olympic National Park, Washington

Second to none

Here in the strange and serene northwestern corner of the contiguous United States, a trio of beaches stretch southward from the Quileute tribal town of La Push, Washington. Their ordinary names—First, Second, and Third Beach—belie extraordinary scenery defined by tall, treelined sea stacks and the distant dances of orcas and humpbacks. During summer (when this sunset snap was captured at Second Beach), the shores swell with tents as nature lovers pilgrimage from Seattle, Spokane, and beyond to this sliver of Olympic National Park. In colder months, Washington state's small yet determined surfing community slip into their thickest wetsuits to seek fat swells here.