THE BLOG | Travels With Towhee | Ride along on this great adventure!

July, 2022

Blog reader Rob said he has cruised north and south along the west side of Camano Island many times on his boat and noticed some cabins near where I was camping on Camano, and he wondered what those cabins were. I found them!

On this camping trip, I was camping at Camano Island State Park. The cabins are at Cama Beach State Park, just a couple of miles north of where I was camped. What was really cool about Cama Beach and the cabins was that about half of the cabins are truly right next to the beach. It used to be a private “camp” but now it’s owned by Washington State and anyone can rent/reserve those cabins.

I bet you remember that “Camano” is pronounced “kuh-MANE-o” with the first syllable sounding like the word “cut” but without the “t”. Cama is pronounced “ca” as in “cat” … then “ma” as in “ma” (like ma and pa) … sort of like the word “camelot” but without the “lot”.

Cama Beach State Park is where the cabins are. You can’t drive in, even if you’re staying there. You park your vehicle in the parking lot up the hill in the trees behind the cabins, and then you carry all your gear (clothes, food, bedding, toys, books, cameras, etc) … you get to carry all your gear down to your cabin. I think there may be some sort of wheelbarrows or carts available for that process.

But look … you’re right on the water. There are official vehicles that drive in and out on the road in front of the cabins in the photo below, but they are few and far between … and the beach is right there. In the photo below, I’m looking south, along the western shore of Camano Island … and that’s Whidbey Island in the distance.

Then I turned around to look north (in the photo below). Now that’s more like it. Those cabins are truly right on the edge of the beach. And they look directly west towards the sunset across the water.

Each cabin has a number, but each cabin also has a name. The name of the first cabin in the photo above is Boatman’s House.

And a very appealing house it is.

Of course, the property also has buildings that house maintenance equipment and work space. The state park rents small rowboats, so they have people employed who maintain and repair those boats.

And, surprisingly to me, there was this large shed for The Center For Wooden Boats (photo below). The main facility for “CWB” (Center for Wooden Boats) is in Seattle at the south end of Lake Union. As an owner of a 40-foot long 1939-built wood hulled power boat, I’m very familiar with that Lake Union facility, especially since my good friend Betsy Davis was the Director there for a very many GOOD number of years (which their website doesn’t even mention!?). I didn’t know CWB had another building up here on Camano Island.

Unfortunately, I was here mid-week and the building was closed. Let me in!!! Aargh!

Well, ok, I’ll have to come back another day.

I then walked north through the entire wonderful community of rentable cabins and work buildings and the people who were out and about here on this perfect day. The state park land continues north a bit outside the area of cabins and other buildings, and into pristine beach area, with woodlands above.

Looking north above.

Looking south below.

You might notice the kayakers and paddle-boarders in the photo above.

Here’s a video (below) of the area. Turn your sound on. Enlarge the video if you wish.

And here’s another video (below) showing a commercial fishing boat cruising by on its way north to prime fishing grounds.

Notice the stand-up paddle boarder … lying on her board, having a nap! That’s how wonderful the waters are here in Puget Sound.

So I walked on the beach a bit, talked with a nice woman who was out walking with her dog, and I talked with the dog a bit, nice dog. And then I headed back south into the cabin area so that I could then get back to my big white truck and head back to my campsite.

I’d like to rent that end cabin on the right please, the one right on the beach.

BUT!!! Ok, here it comes. In the photo below, you’ll see two people on the left looking up into the trees … and two people in the middle of the photo looking up into the trees. But I didn’t even have to look, I heard it! You got it, another eagle.