June 23-28, 2023
Great weather, time to go camping!
This time I’m headed north up I-5 to Bay View State Park. This campground is on the west side of I-5, right next to the waters of Puget Sound, just across Padilla Bay from Anacortes, WA. But first I’m going to head to the east side of I-5 and visit my favorite niece in the universe, in Darrington, WA.
On this first day, I drove up I-5 from my home near Olympia, WA, through Seattle, and Everett, and Marysville, etc. While I was on the freeway in Seattle, I happened to pull in behind the lunch truck below. Mami Tran! I was raised in the Philippines so I think all Asian people (and everyone around the world in fact) are wonderful people. I don’t know much about Vietnamese food, but the Mami Tran website makes their food sound delicious! Of course, I didn’t access the website while driving on the freeway, but later that day I sure did. Yum.
I continued north on I-5, through Seattle, then north of Marysville I turned off and went east to Darrington. I spent a day or two with my niece at her home there. And then I headed west and back across I-5, and then to Bay View State Park. I’d not been here before, either camping or even driving by, but I loved it!
Just before turning into the campground, I snapped the photo below of the view from the campground entrance. Some of the islands are part of the San Juan Islands here in WA, but some of them are, well, just islands here. There are so many islands that we often don’t differentiate between which group of islands each one is in. The water is saltwater and is called Padilla Bay. Looking at the beach, you can tell the tide is out. 🙂
And then I took the turn into the campground and found my campsite. I backed the trailer in and got set up. It was perfect.
As I snapped the photo below, I was looking west towards those many islands. As you can see, my campsite did not have a view of the islands. Too many trees. 🙂
But that was ok, my spot was perfect. Behind me were these black cloth barriers that the state park employees had installed in order to stop foot traffic so native plants could regrow. I liked that. In the photo below, you can see one campsite behind me, with that one picnic table. During the four days that I was here, there was a camper/van in that site only one day/night and they were very quiet people.
Otherwise, the other days/nights I was here, there was the occasional dog-walker (above) … and the occasional bike rider (below) … behind my spot. It was so quiet and so peaceful.
My campsite did not have electricity. Because of the trees, my trailer’s roof solar panel was often in shade, so I put out my remote solar panel. The weather was warm enough that I didn’t want a fire in the evening, especially not right next to my truck!
When I registered online for this campsite, the state park website said the park was full, every night. And yet, looking across the little roadway from my campsite revealed the following …
All week, with the exception of one night, every one of those campsites was empty. I’ve emailed the WA State Park offices and asked about this. Obviously, there will be the occasional cancellation or “no-show”, but this many? I’ve found this with other WA State Park campgrounds as well. I’m of mixed mind … do I try to get this corrected so that more people can enjoy those campsites? Or do I let them continue to be empty so I don’t have noisy neighbors? Hmmmm.
Also in this campground are cabins! And they do mostly have a view of the islands although the view might be through a few trees.
But closer to the campground entrance was this one campsite (below) that had only one neighbor and had a glorious western view of the water and the islands and the sunset. I’m not going to tell you the campsite number! Well, ok, it’s number 3, but I get first dibs ok?
So, where is Bay View State Park, you may ask. Here are two images below from Google Earth …
Basically, I drove up I-5 to Burlington, then turned off the freeway and headed west on state route 20. Then, part way over to Fidalgo Island on route 20, a sign said to turn right in order to go north to the small hamlet of Bay View, and to Bay View State Park. I did that. Easy as pie.
And there I was, happy as a clam at high tide, as we say here in the Pacific Northwest. Clams are harvested at LOW tide. So at HIGH tide, clams are safe from being dug up and eaten, and so they are, well, happy as a clam at high tide. Younger folk here (or people new to the area) know the saying as “happy as a clam”, but we other folk know the original saying. 🙂
Anyway, I’m here, in a new-to-me campground, looking for adventure and new things to learn. Stay tuned! 🙂