Destinations Part 1: How do I read a tide chart?

We're in a research phase right now and I love it. It's kind of a world-is-our-oyster thing. We have a general plan, but it's always pliable, and we have three whole months to go anywhere! So I've been researching my little heart out.

A pretty big chunk of our time will be spent in the Pacific Northwest, a part of the country that neither of us has ever visited. I came across a hike that Backpacker dubbed the Best Coastal Hike in their 2009 National Parks Hall of Fame.

It sounds pretty awesome:

Replay that image many times for 17.7 miles–add mad scrambles up rope ladders over steep headlands, tidepools filled with a menagerie of colorful sea creatures, and sunsets viewed from a driftwood perch–and that pretty much covers the three-day hike from Third Beach to Oil City.

This stretch of coastline is part of Olympic National Park, a destination that already had me hooked due to its temperate rain forest. The only problem with this hike?

They recommend you get a tide chart so you don't wake up underwater. We're a little lazy as far as hikers go, but the NPS's strong assertion that we dare not backpack anywhere without carrying a tide chart and a topographic map is pretty convincing. I looked at a few tide charts and they're pretty boggling. This a hike we'd have to bust out a map, a chart, and a GPS device to be able to safely maneuver - all things we've never had to worry about. We're landlocked people. Canoe country people. The ocean is a big huge mystery that I've only seen twice in my 24 years.

But I want to see this stretch of primitive coastline just enough to try and figure it out. So if anybody wants to pass on your extensive knowledge of the tides... let me know. Or just paint a big red line down the beach for us.