The main reason we came to Fidalgo Bay is its proximity to the San Juan Islands. We didn't even know these islands existed a month ago, but recently other Washington travelers have told us good things about visiting them. We found we could get to the islands via the Washington state ferry system, just a few miles from our RV park. We made our reservation for the 9:30 a.m. ferry, and read all the tips that told us to get there early. Like usual, we were there earlier than early. But this time it worked out well for us, because we snagged a space on the 8:30 ferry instead. We just gained an extra hour of sight-seeing, that we started as they motioned us to drive into the bowels of the ferry.
If your car is claustrophobic, we wouldn't recommend riding on this ferry. They pack the vehicles on pretty snug. A few more pounds and Denisa would have had to crawl over the seat to get out the other side of the car.
Out on the open water, we met one of the Washington state ferries going the opposite direction. There is a sizable fleet of these boats plying the waters of the Salish Sea, delivering passengers to the biggest four San Juan islands that are visited most frequently.
We filled our car up with gas before we made the trip, as we expected gasoline to be expensive on the islands. That's because fuel is considered hazardous cargo that can't be squeezed on the big ferry boats. So it has to pay the price for a private ride across the water.
Since Denisa has been hankering to go on a cruise, Mark tried to convince her that this hour-long ferry ride was a cruise. After all, we got beautiful cruise-like scenery of the views of the ice-covered mountains of the Olympic peninsula.
There are over 200 named islands in this area, and we got front row views as we cruised by many of them. We're out on deck, scanning the horizon for the orca whales that live here.
There was comfortable seating inside, and many of the experienced passengers were even bedding down on the long padded seats--just like on a cruise ship. But Denisa pointed out the hotdog from the ferry cafeteria didn't stack up to cruise food. It was also a little chilly on this cruise, as Mark is huddled outside the cafe's kitchen door where the warm exhaust was blowing.
Our ferry's destination is San Juan Island. That's the most populated of the islands, and it also has the largest town--Friday Harbor. It's a cute little sea-side village, with restaurants and shops. Instead of paying to bring a car, many people buy the lower per-person fare and just walk around Friday Harbor while visiting this island.
But we paid the big money to bring the car, so we would have wheels to explore the entire island. That would take us first to the southern tip, where we explored a national historical site--The American camp. Denisa is standing on South Beach that is part of this national park.
We especially liked the wide-open prairies just above that beach. The volunteers at the visitor's center told us a large group of rabbits have made their home here. But we only spotted one rabbit in the field. That's probably because we saw several foxes out hunting for rabbit in the same field.
We saw both orange- and black-colored foxes in the field, prowling and sniffing into the rabbit holes. Mark did some google research, and discovered that a "red fox" can be several different colors--orange, black, silver, or any combinations thereof.
We were really excited to find this one laying in the middle of a field of wildflowers, very close to the road. The other distinguishing feature among all the red foxes is the bushy tail with a white tip.
A young fox is called a kit, and this guy was limping. He certainly doesn't look like a "red fox," but we could see that bright white tip on his long tail.
It was hard to pull Denisa away from taking fox pictures. But she also liked the views from the top of the hill with the wild poppies in the foreground of another beach picture.
Even better than that, she also got a fox and poppy picture with the sea in the background. Triple bonus points! There are signs all around the park reminding visitors not to feed the animals. But from this guy's behavior, it looks like some of the tourists aren't following the rules. He walked right up to the group of cars at the hill-top viewpoint.
We made the drive to the end of the island to see the sad little lighthouse. It is actually slated to be refurbished, and it did make a good silhouette against the pretty blue sky. We probably should explain the historical significance of this American Camp national historical park. In the mid-1800's, both England and the United States laid claim to San Juan island. When an American farmer shot an Englishman's pig that was rooting in his potato field, the "Pig War" became an international crisis. Both countries agreed to set up military camps on opposite ends of this small island, in order to protect their citizens' interests until the true ownership of the island was determined.
The American camp had less funding because we were fighting a Civil War at the time. But we liked it better because of its natural views and fox population.
Before the day was over, we would drive to the northern end of San Juan Island to visit the more civilized English camp. During the 12 years they occupied this post, the British built 23 buildings. So when it was legally determined that the United States got possession of the island, England sadly left. The "Pig War" was a very civilized crisis, that ended with no blood shed.
While we were in the north part of the island, we also visited Roche Harbor. We were glad to see that the lavender is beginning to bloom here, so Denisa finally got to see her purple plants after all.
Our last stop on San Juan Island was one of the best viewpoints for spotting orcas from the shore. We went to the lighthouse at Lime Kiln Point State Park to look across the waters.
It turned out to be a beautiful day, and we had reports that the resident orcas (killer whales) had been spotted coming this way from Victoria Island. There are 3 different pods of resident whales that make their home here, and we sure wanted to see this group of 38 whales.
But we never did get to see one for ourselves. The best we could do was to take a picture at the state park's visitor center with paintings of the orcas breaching and sky-hopping. Denisa is standing beside a life-size model of a six-foot-tall orca fin. That is what we should see first if a pod of killer whales were in the area.
Before we left Lime Kiln Point State Park, we had to figure out where that name came from. It seems that these hills are made of limestone. If it is cooked down in a large oven, it becomes lime that is used in the production of steel. This is one of those old lime kilns from the 1800's, nestled away on the beach here on San Juan Island.
We had a great day exploring San Juan Island. We had thought about riding our bikes instead of going to the expense of bringing the car on the ferry. But with many hills and some distance between sights, we were glad we opted for the car today. We would have been too tired from pedaling to enjoy the sights once we bicycled to each one. Besides, we found out we could explore two islands for the price of one if we moved pretty fast today. So we are heading back to the ferry dock for some island hopping. But that's the story for another island blog.
After three days without any hook-ups, we were ready to move to our next campground in Anacortes, Washington. We've traveled another hour north, as we drive into Fidalgo Bay RV. It's nice to have 50-amps of electricity, plus water and sewer hook-ups! It's also nice to be in a very picturesque spot along Fidalgo Bay on a beautiful day. There is a walking/bicycling trail that actually runs through the RV park, so we got out our bikes soon after we arrived.
The path took us over Fidalgo Bay, on a bridge above the water that was built just for riding bicycles or strolling.
There are interesting obstacles on the trail. The resident sea gulls scoop up clams along the waters of the bay. These bird brains have figured out the easiest way to break the clam shell and get to the meat inside. They drop it from high above the hard surface of the bike path, and it cracks right open. Then the gulls scoop up the tasty clam inside and leave the sharp broken clam shells on the trail. Our next door neighbor told us that the trail is swept clean on a regular basis, because those sharp shells will puncture bike tires. We see one of those bird-brain sea gulls to the left of the trail as Denisa rides her new bike by--hoping not to get her brand new tires punctured.
We turned around at the end of the bridge, then headed in the opposite direction on the trail. With the bay on our right, we have a three mile ride into the harbor town of Anacortes.
We stopped at Cap Sante Park to see how the citizens of this part of Washington spend a beautiful-weather afternoon.
There were kayakers and sailboats enjoying the weather in the bay. We also saw a whole boat load of whale watchers leaving the marina. They have been guaranteed to see an orca (killer whale) before they return to the harbor.
When we walked to the end of the dock, we saw an entire school of fish. We were mesmerized as we watched them shift back and forth, and change direction as if they were one unit. It was a little like watching a living lava lamp that changes shapes and size.
But that one unit of fishiness was actually made up of thousands of small fish, moving in unison as the group responded to waves and other movements in the water.
We are getting used to finding memorials that list the names of citizens that died at sea near each port. It's sobering to see the length of the list of names. It reminds us that the ocean is a dangerous place. There is also a statue named "Lady of the Sea" to commemorate the families that wait for their fishermen to come home safely.
We had a great moving-day tour of our new home-town here in Anacortes, Washington. We have a long list of things we want to see and do in this area and we like what we have seen already.
One of the things we like about our location at Tulalip Casino is its proximity to the Scenic Mountain Loop within the Cascade Mountains. We are right next door to a National Forest with good mountain trails, and we read good things about the Lake 22 trail. On the way, Denisa couldn't help but notice the wildflowers along this little mountain road.
She had never seen the bell-shaped foxglove flowers growing in the wild. They were grouped around guard rails, looking like a formal garden in the middle of the forest.
Now that we have those flower pictures out of the way, we can get on with the hiking. We were glad to have heavy-duty soles on our boots, because this trail turned rocky for most of the hike.
After an hour of hiking straight up that trail, we finally broke out of the trees to see the peaks around us.
We were working hard and not taking many pictures until we hiked the 3.5 miles to our destination--Lake 22. And our first view of the lake made the tough hike up here worth it. We have wandered into another of God's wonders!
If we move Denisa out of the picture, we can see Pilchuck mountain behind the lake, still wearing a skirt of snow. The clear water of the lake is perfectly reflecting the snow.
There were several other hikers getting that view of the mountain from the cleared boardwalk with us. But what could we see if we hiked through the snow-covered trail that went around the lake? It's a little treacherous, since the snow is melting from the bottom.
But it gave us new views of the lake from the side, where the reflection in the lake makes an interesting view.
Hiking from the other side, the water of the lake reflected the green of the trees around it to make a beautiful aqua-marine color.
We paused at the top for a good long time, and then it was time to hit the trail for the long walk downhill to the car. We are enjoying more spring wildflowers, and Denisa is trying hard not to take too many pictures. But when we see something new, she just has to take a picture.
That's a pretty cool bright-orange-shooting-star-shaped bloom, but she wonders what the face of that bloom looks like. It takes a limbo-move on the trail to take a picture of the downward-facing bloom that most people will just hike right by without noticing.
We really prefer a good loop hike, where the scenery changes for the entire hike. But we are headed back down the same trail we just hiked up. To keep from being bored, Denisa plays games to distract herself from those redundantly steep rocky parts of the trail. Today's game is counting the times we must cross the water that keeps flowing over our trail.
The reason that everything is so green is the water that freely flows from the sky and the snow melt. So Denisa is counting every time we have to rock-hop across the flowing water, or find an alternate way around a pool of water that completely covers the trail. Want to guess how many times that happened?
We're back to the opening in the trees where the peaks around us are brighter and the sky bluer than when we were hiking up-hill.
We think this trip back down the mountain will be tasty in a few weeks. We found out that these are thimble-berries that will ripen into tasty red berries.
We can't lie, we were glad when we got to the bottom of that mountain and could sit down. We had forded through 54 water crossings to get to the bottom. That means it was 7 miles and 108 water crossings for the entire hike. That might be a record for us. Our legs say that it should be time to head home, but there's one other stop to make.
This is Big Four Mountain. Instead of hiking, our legs agree that the view near the parking of all 6,135 feet of this mountain is quite grand.
But do we have enough energy to walk to the base of that grand mountain?
A mile later, we are standing at the snowy foot of Big Four Mountain. We have found ourselves back in the snow once again.
This is called the Ice Caves Trail. That's because it brings a hiker right down to the base of the mountain, where icy caves form as the snow melts from the inside of the tall drifts at the base.
It must be a little late for the caves this summer, because this is the only one we found. We had carefully read about the dangers of the caves, and the warnings from the family of a young girl that died when a cave collapsed. So we kept our distance, and followed the advice not to go inside.
Now that we've hiked close to ten miles, we really are on the road towards home. As we headed back to the motor home, we were entertained by more tiny blue wildflowers along the highway. With the grand views and the spring wildflowers, we are enjoying these Cascade Mountains in our new back yard!
