Skip to content

Ruby Beach Recognized as One of the World’s Best  

Sparkling red and strewn with sea stacks, Washington's rugged shoreline stands out

By Sarah Stackhouse February 22, 2024

GettyImages-1440851155-16-9-2000x1125
Photo by benedek/Getty

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2024 issue of Seattle magazine.

Ruby Beach in Olympic National Park nabbed a spot on Lonely Planet’s list of the world’s best beaches.

In its latest publication, Best Beaches: 100 of the World’s Most Incredible Beaches, travel guide book publisher Lonely Planet highlights Ruby among 12 U.S. beaches, rubbing shoulders with coastal destinations such as Cannon Beach in Oregon and the idyllic shores of Hawaii, Florida, and California.

What sets Ruby Beach apart is its untamed beauty a departure from the polished beaches in travel guides. Described by Lonely Planet as looking like a “giant emptied his pockets on the shores,” with tree trunks, “strewn like matchsticks, sea stacks cluster like crumbled chocolates. And a colorful assortment of agates, garnets and sea glass add a touch of glitter to the captivating mess.”

Situated on the Olympic Peninsula, a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Seattle, Ruby Beach is known for its towering sea stacks sculpted by centuries of wind and waves, and its thriving tide pools.

The beach gets its name from the sparkling red minerals known as almandite garnets found in the sand and shaped by intense pressure over time. The garnets likely come from source rocks in the Olympic Mountains, and are thought to have traveled down the coast by river over millennia.

The rugged charm of Ruby Beach isn’t exclusive to Washington’s coast. Seattle-area beaches like Golden Gardens, Discovery Park Beach, and Richmond Beach Saltwater Park share similar features logs scattered along the sand with brightly colored rocks breaking up the shoreline.

It’s no wonder people are reluctant to leave Washington during the summer months.

Follow Us

The Rise of the Experience Economy

The Rise of the Experience Economy

REI brings back guided travel, betting that memories matter more than stuff.

In my household, with two young boys under the age of five, we often have to remind them to take things back. Did you really mean to tell dad that his dinner isn’t good? You might want to take that back. Did your brother deserve to be hit? Let’s rethink that one. Extreme analogies aside,…

Bellevue Is Treating Accessibility Like Infrastructure

Bellevue Is Treating Accessibility Like Infrastructure

A partnership with Wheel the World makes it easier to plan travel with verified details.

For a lot of people, the hardest part of travel planning isn’t arranging flights or booking a hotel. It’s figuring out whether a place will actually work for your needs once you get there. Bellevue has partnered with Wheel the World, a travel platform used worldwide, to verify accessibility details for hotels, attractions, restaurants, and…

Northwest Enters Winter After Warmest Fall on Record

Northwest Enters Winter After Warmest Fall on Record

Unseasonably high temperatures and rain instead of snow have pushed regional snowpack to record lows for this point in the season.

Across the Northwest, a record-warm fall and lack of snowpack going into the winter is putting more drought pressure on Oregon, Idaho, Washington and western Montana. Despite record rain in western Washington recently, and earlier this year in central and southern Oregon, the showers are filling up already overdrawn reservoirs in many areas, scientists said…

Renew Yourself in Bellingham, Washington
Sponsored

Renew Yourself in Bellingham, Washington

Images courtesy of Visit Bellingham Unwind and reset in 2026 with a trip to peaceful Bellingham, Washington. Located between the stunning Cascade Mountains and the tranquil Salish Sea, there’s no better place for a trip packed with quiet moments in nature combined with the amenities of a culturally rich college town. Bellingham is known for…