Deception Pass State Park

The second day we woke up to the promised sunshine and blue skies.

First we went back to the bridges over Deception and Canoe Passes. Deception Pass got its name from Captain George Vancouver in June of 1792. I can't imagine the weather was this gorgeous that day...

We could even see Mt Baker from the Deception Pass bridge.

North Beach at the state Park from 180 feet above Deception Pass

There were large beds of kelp everywhere along the water's edge...

Built with over 1500 pounds of steel and giving passage to about 15,000 cars every day, we had to walk down the stairs and underneath to pass to the other side...

I wonder what the view are like from the water speeding by on currents that can reach up to 9.2 miles per hour! 

Next stop was the trailheads at Bowman Bay on Fidalgo Island...

Bowman Bay from the trail to Rosario Head

Deception Island in the mouth of Bowman Bay 

We walked down and explored the tide pools on Rosario Beach before walking up to the head...

Kwuh-kwal-uhl-wut, the Maiden of Deception Pass marks the path up to Rosario Head...

The view at the top of the trail was beautiful  and the perfect spot to enjoy our lunch...

The hike back was just as pretty...

The madrone trees were lovely and often made for the perfect picture frames... 

On the other side of the bay we walked out to both Lighthouse and Lottie Points.

We came upon the perfect swimming beach with smooth sand and clear water. Unfortunately the water was blocked by huge piles of slimy green seaweed... :( 

For a while the trail wound away from the bluff and into the woods...

But it wasn't long until we were back to the views of the water...

Deception Island

This little beach was lovely and secluded, but also quite the climb down. Not to mention the climb back up...

The lighthouse at Lighthouse Point was a little anti-climatic. Just a little beacon on a post...

But we did get a different view of the bridges from a distance...

a viewpoint on the Lottie Point trail

The Deception Pass Bridge is 976 feet long and the Canoe Pass Bridge is 511 feet for a total span of 1487 feet! 

I trudged down a bit of a hill through some thick brush on a "trail" to get this picture of both bridges. I'm not sure it was worth the work... :/ 

Cap Sante Park in Anacortes was next on our list and the GPS took us to the Rotary Park near the Cap Sante Marina. 

It was a pretty little park on the water but I really wanted to get a view from the hill above. 

It was a really steep walk up...

Just as we reached the top, Chris spotted a buck bedded down in a small clearing out of view...

As we got closer to the top we began to hear traffic and suspected that we could have driven up. 

Yup. We were right. The actual Cap Sante Park was at the top of the hill at the end of a road. Oops... 

The views from the top were worth the hike up...

 But we weren't willing (ok, I wasn't) to walk the same trail back down. So we just walked down the must longer but less steep road back down to Rotary Park and the marina.

turned out the buck had a girlfriend ;) 

The signs of Fall were all around us...

By this time we were ready for supper and drove to the Anacortes Brewing Company. Let's just say it was a good thing we were really hungry. We won't be going back. :/ 

But our waitress did recommend Washington Park for watching the sunset. Thankfully we made it just barely in time...

It was really cold and windy but we bundled up and stayed for a bit to watch the sun go down and the ferries heading for Vancouver Island. Oh, and we also watched a seal swim by...

Before going back to camp, we made one last stop at The Store in Anacortes for the best muffins ever for our breakfast the next morning. <3 nbsp="" p="">

Chuckanut to Deception Pass

This year for our anniversary trip we decided to stay close to home and check out the area where we now live. It took a long time to make up our minds and choose a place but in the end we went with a loop of about 2 hours from Ferndale along the water...

 

Thanks to the weather, we missed out on almost two travel days but we took off on Tuesday afternoon despite the rain in order to get a jump start on the sunny weather Wednesday-Friday.

Turns out that Chuckanut Drive isn't so pretty in the clouds and pouring rain and isn't fun to drive all the sharp curves in a truck with a scooter on the front towing a trailer. But it will be a fun drive someday on the bike... :)

Our first stop was Larabee State Park, again not much in the rain but on a future to-do list, and then for lunch at Bay View State Park. The rain stopped just long enough to let Max out to run and eat a bit of lunch...

Despite avoiding the interstate, we arrived at Deception Pass State Park just as the sun was popping out. There are a LOT of camping sites to choose from during the "shoulder season" but we finally picked one we liked: level, dry, room for the dog, and privacy. And thanks to the recent rainfall and warming sun, the whole campground smelled like the house the day you bring in your fresh-cut Christmas tree to decorate.  :)

By the time we got camp all set up, we drove to do a bit of exploring and find the sunset.

We took a quick detour by the camp amphitheater and discovered a view of the bridges we crossed on the way...

Wrong direction for the sunset, so we continued our drive to West Beach...

A single Fall leaf on the beach

Yup, it was just the right spot... 

It was such a peaceful place to watch the sun go down. But once it was down, it was much too cold to sit and enjoy the moon coming up any longer...

Turns out it was also a beautiful sunset at Cranberry Lake...

This summer we bought a gas firepit for the back yard and we threw it in the truck. While I kind of missed the campfire smell and watching the wood turn to ashes, I did not miss hot sparks landing in my lap or constantly having to move to avoid smoke in my eyes...