The Olympic Peninsula, on Washington State's northwest corner, is home to Olympic National Park and Cape Alava. Cape Alava was once home to the Ozette (pronounced Ho-sett) or the Ho-Selth, who called themselves Kwih-dich-chuh-ahtx or "people who live by rocks and seagulls." We now call these people the Makah, the name given by a neighboring tribe, the Jamestown S'Klallam, meaning "generous with food." A terrific way to see this area is on foot, on a 10-mile loop trail maintained by the National Park Service. The trail includes a magical three-mile section through a coastal rain forest. Here the trail runs on cedar planks cut from 1,000-year-old western red cedars. This tree was of great value to the region's Native peoples, who utilized its bark to make clothing and hats to protect themselves from the 100 inches of annual rainfall. Its roots were used in basket making, while canoes were carved from whole trees to hunt seals and migrating gray whales. The Native peoples also built cedar-planked longhouses averaging 60 by 30 feet with 15-foot ceilings. Today the cedar planks protect the vegetation beneath the trail. Walking through a spring-meadow quilt of blue camas flowers, I enter the forest, listening to a symphony of songbirds arriving in their nesting grounds while drumming woodpeckers search dead wood for insects. Sound switches to surf, smell to salty air as the trail ends on a rocky Pacific Ocean beach. Seals dot the beach, sunning themselves at low tide as dozens of great blue herons wade in search of a meal. Bald eagles perch on rocky sea stacks (isolated columns of rock surrounded by the sea) among waves or in trees that extend over the eroded banks at the water's edge. I journey north up the beach a half-mile more. The Makahs, who now live north of here in Neah Bay, tell the story of the Ozette whaling village at their cultural center. The Ozettes lived at Cape Alava until about 500 years ago, when a mudslide buried their village. In the late 1960s, after a series of storms pounded the coast, artifacts began showing up on the beaches. The Makahs, who knew of the village, engaged archaeologists to dig the site. More than 55,000 artifacts were recovered and are now housed at the tribal cultural center at Neah Bay. Having been to the cultural center, I wanted to visit the former Ozette Village just north of the Makah Cape Alava Ranger Station. Although the site has been closed for many years, a small cedar house remains here. Inside are whale bones and an altar where visitors leave shells, stones or whatever moves them to honor the people who once lived there. A loose-leaf notebook is on the table with a moving story written by a Makah about finding her roots in a story published in National Geographic (Oct. 1991). The inconspicuous site exuded a powerful presence, echoes of some of the continent's original peoples. I continued south along the coastal trail, passing through and over headlands that line the coast. Near the beach I came upon "Wedding Rocks," covered with more than 40 petroglyphs. Archaeologists estimate these drawings-whales, a fisher with dip net, fertility symbols-are 300 to 500 years old, probably carved by the peoples who lived at Ozette Village. After three miles of hiking the beach among the crabs and the driftwood at low tide, I reach Sand Point, where backpackers have set up their tents on this sandy outcrop. Here a return three-mile trail leads back to the National Park Visitor Center, completing this spectacular triangular trail system that seems to have led me to the end of the earth and back in time. Details: Visit www.nps.gov/olym/index.htm, the Olympic National Park site. Reservations are required for beach camping. Also contact the Makah Cultural and Research Center, 360/645-2711 or http://www.makah.com/". The Makah tribe hosts its annual major public gathering, Makah Days, in late August with a grand parade, street fair, canoe races, traditional "slahal" games, dancing, singing, feasting and spectacular fireworks.