We ended our North Cascades trip by traveling to Anacortes to check out Deception Pass State Park. I really enjoyed this state park.
We had a nice lunch at the Rosario Beach area and did a couple hikes. This is where we first saw some real large banana slugs and other species. From here on out, we had to watch our step so we didn't smush any slugs! Why do I have the "banana phone" song stuck in my head but with a twist: "ring ring ring banana slug!" 🤣
The picture below from Rosario Beach represents a story pole of the Maiden of Deception Pass and is a Samish legend. "In the legend, the Samish maiden Ko-Kwal-alwoot marries a man who lives in the ocean in exchange for providing her people with plentiful food from the sea."
There was large amounts of kelp floating beneath the waters and we spotted a seal as we hiked around Deception Pass. Some interesting species of water birds were hanging out along the shorelines...
I really liked the succulents and other ground coverings we saw while hiking the trails.
We visited the ancient Douglas-Fir tree which is near Cranberry Lake campground. The tree is supposedly 850 years or so old! What!??
We also visited Anacortes for us to do a whale watching tour. It was a bit chilly!!! We saw a variety of wildlife on our tour such as bald eagles, rams, harbor seals and sea lions. I thought seeing wild rams was really neat! We saw seals in Maine but I believe these were a different species. The one on the bottom right has the goofiest look on its face 🤣
Our boat captain tracked down a male humpback whale named Splitfin out in Canadian waters off the coast of the San Juan Islands. It was disappointing to not see orca whales (then I thought back to my Seaworld visits) but when do you get to see a humpback whale!? This particular whale was born in 2006 and migrates to Hawaii.
It was a difficult task to photograph Splitfin since whales move so fast under the water. We all eager waited for that "puff of air" out of his blowhole which is also easily missed if you are not paying attention (in my video below you will see this happen around 20 seconds). It is not an easy task to photograph or video while on a moving boat:
Splitfin gave us a bit of a show as he did a deep dive and showed off his tail.
We ended our night with a drive up to Mt. Erie to see the spectacular sunset! Mt. Erie is on Fidalgo Island and has an elevation of 1,273 feet. This would be a tsunami evacuation spot for the people in this area since it is the highest point.
Here is our itinerary for this part of our trip:
June 12 Sunday - North Cascades National Park
Breakfast at cabin
Check out from Grace Haven Cabin
Travel to Anacortes (1 hr 3 min)
(baker lake trail in n. Cascades before leaving), saw a bear!
Lunch: pack
Rosario head trail
Lighthouse point and lottie trail
Drive up to Mt. Erie for sunset
Dinner: Thai place naung mai
Check in: ship harbor inn
June 13 monday
Breakfast at hotel
Check out from Ship Harbor hotel
Whale watch tour 10 am to 3 pm
Lunch/early dinner at front street in coupeville
Travel to ferry
Ferry to Port townsend from Coupeville
Travel to Port Angeles from Port Townsend ferry
Check in air bnb on lake Sutherland for 2 nights
Make sure to check out our North Cascades, Mt. Rainier, Olympic, and Mt St.Helens/Columbia River Gorge blog posts as well if you have not! Cheers!
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