And now the final chapter of our western vacation - the
San Juan Islands. We started this three-day long weekend adventure by driving up to Anacortes to ride a Washington State Ferry out to
Orcas Island where we were staying. There ferry ride was smooth and the scenery was amazing.
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| One of the Washington State Ferries |
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| Our Ferry! |
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| Ferry Docking! |
Once on Orcas Island we drove into the main village of Eastsound. When we got there we saw that it was low tide and there is piece of land that is only accessible by foot during low tide, so we decided to walk out and check it out. The footing was pretty soft and wet making it a little difficult to walk, but we saw many starfish and crabs.
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| Purple starfish |
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| Trying to walk through low tide |
From town we drove up
Mount Constitution to an elevation of 2,400 ft. We did eventually hike the mountain, but it was quicker and easier to drive at first to get the view. From the top, the views of the sound, surrounding islands, and Mount Baker in the distance were amazing.
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| Mount Baker from Mount Constitution |
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| The Puget Sound from Mount Constitution |
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| Us and Mount Baker |
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| The whole group! and Mount Baker! |
After seeing the views, we checked out some of the local sites, which included the
Island Hoppin' Brewery. We tried their beers and had a good time.
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| Diana and Beer! |
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| Me and Joe, and Beer! |
The next day we hit the trails around Mount Constitution to Twin Lakes. The hike started around midway up the mountain and the first part of the hike was great (downhill). Then we saw the twin lakes and had to hike constant switchbacks up the mountain to the summit, before a short downhill finished our loop back at the car. It was a good hike with beautiful terrain and again amazing views from the top.
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| Off to Twin Lakes. Hoping we don't end up like the skull wedged in the sign! |
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| Running up a crooked tree at one of the twin lakes |
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| Observing some nasty looking swimming newt/salamander things in a pond along the trail. There were also leeches! No swimming occurred. |
Our last day on the islands started with a ferry ride from Orcas Island to
San Juan Island. This island is more touristy and inhabited than our visit on Orcas Island. First, we drove to
Lime Kiln State Park to try to see some whales. There is a local
pod of Orcas that had been cruising the waters near the park. Unfortunately, the whales passed by early in the morning and we didn't see any.
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| Trying our hardest to see some whales! |
Moving on from our failed whale watching, we were back to Friday Harbor to set out on our half day ocean kayaking tour. We kayaked off the west side of the island looking across to Victoria, British Columbia. The conditions were great and we covered a lot of water. There were only six in our group plus the tour guides and we were all in pretty good shape. By the end of tour the guide said that we went a lot farther than a lot of their full day tours make it. I guess we were all good paddlers. We saw a lot of wildlife including many bald eagles, seals, otters, and some crazy looking jellyfish. Our tour guide also pointed out the clumps of Bull Kelp that grown up to 18 inches per day, and also look and feel pretty nasty.
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| Naturals at kayaking |
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| Bull Kelp. The tour guide ate some right out of the water. Not us. |
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| Jellyfish! |
Our day wrapped up with dinner and then the ferry ride back to the main land where we had a late night flight the next day back to Wisconsin. It was a great trip and we would recommend a visit to anyone who hasn't been to the Pacific Northwest. Now on to planning the next vacation!
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| Sunset on a great vacation! |
