Ferry ride to Washington state parks

It was 59 degrees when we got on the road this morning from our camping spot at the Elwha River Casino. It had been raining for the last 24 hours, but our lithium battery still had a 68% charge. This was the Pacific Northwest weather we had expected to find, and we had worried about this six-night stretch of shady campgrounds with no electrical hook-ups. Unlike the lead-acid batteries that you shouldn't drain lower than 50%, you can safely use a lithium battery down to 0%. But we obviously never got close to how long we could have camped without hook-ups. It was a 1.5-hour drive to Port Townsend, Washington, where we had a reservation for the 12:30 ferry to Whidbey Island.

We made reservations months ago, having to estimate how long we wanted to stay in each location along the way. But we guessed pretty well on our path and timing. That good estimating probably comes from the 9 years of experience we had from RVing across the country full-time. On the drive this morning we turned off Highway 101 for the last time, and headed south and east towards home for the first time. We were supposed to arrive 45 minutes before our reservation time. We were actually earlier than that in hopes of finding room on an earlier ferry.

Our early arrival was rewarded with a spot on the 10:00 ferry. They pack the vehicles on tight on these ferries that cross over the Salish Sea to the San Juan Islands.

We got a front row spot for the best view out the bow of the ferry for the voyage.

It was chilly on board as we wandered around the ferry during our trip across this arm of the Salish Sea.

It was a 35 minute voyage on the ferry to get to Whidbey Island. It cost us $70 for the ticket for 2 people and a 39-foot pickup and trailer on the ferry crossing. But our only other alternative would be to drive south around the water through the terrible traffic of the Seattle metro area. That route to get to the same location would take 200 miles of driving. So the ferry price was cheaper than the gas and time for us. As we approached the ferry terminal on Whidbey Island, they started lowering the ramp we would exit on. This ferry is cancelled during very low tides when that ramp would be too steep to load and unload the ferry.

We saw another loaded ferry headed back towards Port Townsend.

Just a few miles from the ferry terminal was a Washington state park we wanted to visit. The winds were light on this peninsula of land that is normally quite gusty. Popular among kite flyers because of the constant coastal winds, they were having a hard time keeping the big kites in the air on this calm morning.

Like all of Washington state parks, Fort Casey requires a $10 Discover Pass to park and enjoy the sights. We were planning to use that pass at several parks this day. Our first stop was at the old military stronghold that guarded this section of the Puget Sound from 1897 until it was dismantled during World War I. The long cannons mounted on the walls of the fort were capable of shooting a 1,600 pound shell eight miles!

But then ships started carrying heavy duty artillery, and planes that could fly overhead and dump bombs made these long guns obsolete. Suddenly, shooting at a target eight miles from this stationary point wasn't good enough, and Fort Casey was closed. Now it's open for curious visitors to look down the barrel of the long gun.

We took a long hike along the shore, glad to see that some of the clouds were separating to show a hint of blue in the sky.

The other reason we stopped was to see the Admiralty Lighthouse, because Denisa loves a good lighthouse.

With the purchase of that Discover Pass, we were allowed to climb the spiral staircase of this stubby lighthouse.

We were far enough from the shore that this didn't seem like a very effective place for a lighthouse. That's when we found that the lighthouse used to be at the point where Fort Casey now stands. It was moved when the cannons were installed. The old lighthouse was in the way of the guns.

It was a nice day with great views from the top of the lighthouse. It was warm at the top of that glassed-in viewing room that felt a little like a sauna. We had been wearing jackets all day, but had to shed them at the top of the lighthouse. We talked to the senior volunteers that live in Southern California, and come here to Washington to escape the summer heat of California. We found that we were also doing a good job of escaping the August heat back home.

We planned to make another stop at Deception Pass State Park, but we knew it would be hard to find a parking place with the trailer hooked to the pickup. When we popped over the hill, we saw the mayhem at the state park in front of us. The crown jewel of the Washington state park system are the two old bridges that span the water that deceived more than one sailing ship. Denisa snapped a picture as we drove over the bridge amid the surprisingly large crowd on this Saturday afternoon. Since we visited this park eight years ago, we decided we didn't need to stop today.

At those bridges we crossed from Whidbey Island to Fidalgo Island. It took us an hour to drive the length of the two islands, weaving through little towns with stop lights and dodging the bicyclists participating in the weekend "Tour de Whidbey Island" race. We had reservations at Swinomish Casino RV park with the first full-hook-up site in a week. We planned a full-hook-up site with electricity and water every week or so because we didn't know how it would be to live with only the electricity produced from our solar panels. Now we know we could go much longer than a week. After setting up the trailer in its new camp site, we started on our list of places recommended by RV friends that just spent two weeks in this area. Our first stop was Kukutali Preserve--we couldn't make up (or pronounce) a name like that! 

We were greeted by plump and juicy blackberries filling the thorny bushes draping beside the trail.

There were three different trails across this peninsula, each about 1/2 mile in length. We chose the more difficult north trail first. It wound up and down through the forest. It finally broke out into views of the Salish Sea. Mark was pointing at the Deception Bridge that we had driven over just a couple hours earlier.

A zoomed-in picture of the bridge that connects Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands doesn't look busy at all from this distance.

After a half-mile hike, we got to the end of the peninsula for wide open views of the sea.

Among the large driftwood that covered the beach, we found an unusually colored sea shell.

While it was colored blue on the outside, the inside held a message to "hide me again."

So we found a new driftwood knot hole to place it into for the next hiker to find.

While we would have liked to walk to the tip of the peninsula, signs warned that the trail was closed to protect the fragile habitat.

So we turned around and headed south. We planned to go back to the pickup on the south trail. We followed the sign for South Beach, admiring the huge red-trunk trees near the water. Denisa was dwarfed by this huge tree, and you can barely see her at the bottom.

It was a tough walk through the big river rocks and over the rocky shores, and we finally got an idea that we might have missed the south trail.

But we found more of those beautiful trees with their red trunks pointing in the direction of the sea winds that formed them.

By the time we realized we had missed our trail, it was a long ways back, and we hated to back-track. Maybe we could continue on the beach to get back to the pickup? Nope, a steep black rock wall falling steeply into the water indicated that we had come to the end of this detour. But maybe we could climb that rock wall--and the slick grassy wall above--and fight through the brambles and fallen logs to get to the real south trail high above us? Or maybe we would try to do that and fall back down into the sea?

It wasn't pretty and we took no pictures because it was never certain we were going to be successful on this detour until we finally made it to the top. Whew! Maybe we should have just backtracked over that rocky beach section. By the time we got back to the pickup we got 2.7 more miles of sometimes-rigorous exercise.

Our next stop was Cap Sante State Park. Denisa leaned out of the pickup window to take a picture of this fawn in the grass on our way.

The pickup did the climbing this time as we drove up and up to the top of Cap Sante State Park. Our Washington Discover Pass once again was good for another parking place at another state park. We hiked out to the look-out over the marina and the Sea of Cortes.

The next stop was Washington Park. We drove to Sunset Beach, already filled with people waiting for the sunset.

We started the 1.3-mile loop to Green Point with more views of the water and another distant lighthouse on the coast. We were just a mile from another ferry port that took passengers to the San Juan islands, scattered around the water in front of us.

As we drove back to our trailer parked at the casino, we drove by something new to us. While we have enjoyed many road-side fruit and vegetable stands, we were seeing more and more road-side flower stands. This was one of the most expensive, with real vases and bouquets that sold for $25. Customers can leave the cash in the lock box when they leave. We saw unattended flower stands that ranged from prices of $5 to $25. The wet growing season on these islands produces an abundance of flowers that its residents were glad to share.

That was a full day of ferrying, then driving across two islands to tour several more Washington state Parks!