October 13-18, 2024
Seven years ago, in 2017, I camped at Deception Pass State Park for the first time. I loved it. Here’s a link to the first day of that camping trip … https://www.travelswithtowhee.com/deception-pass-state-park-day-1/. Now, a few years later (2024), and many years wiser, I decided to head back to Deception Pass State Park, one of my favorite campgrounds so far.
In the photo above, I’ve pulled my trailer out from its storage spot near where I live, and stopped on the grass right in front of the storage spot. Here I check the lights, the electric brakes, make sure all the side hatches and windows are closed, triple check the hitch connections. And then it’s on the road! Deception Pass State Park, here I come. 🙂
That blog post about my first camping trip to Deception Pass State Park has info/maps on how to get there. But here’s an image (below) with info about this current trip. Almost all of the land in the image below is within Deception Pass State Park. Deception Pass, with the bridges that take you to the next island to the north, is outside the image below, to the north. The big RED K at the bottom of the image below is where you drive into the state park (K is for kiosk, where you check in with the Park Rangers). The big RED Q to the right is the Quarry Pond campground that I visited when I was here before and it also is part of the state park. After you check in at the KIOSK, you drive around, up and down, then along Cranberry Lake for a bit, then you turn right and finally enter (“E”) the campground. When I was here before, I then turned right and headed to my campsite at the big ORANGE dot. But for this trip, I turned left and headed to my campsite at the big RED dot. No electricity at the big red dot campsite, but I had a glorious view of the sunset every evening that I didn’t have when I was camped here before.
I was nicely welcomed by the sign above, and then I drove into the state park, checked in at the kiosk in the photo below, and was warmly welcomed by the human there. Then I proceeded to drive through the state park around and down and up and over, through the trees, along Cranberry Lake, etc …
… and eventually I parked Towhee the Trailer and the big white truck in our campsite. Wow, it was beautiful.
The water closest to me was Cranberry Lake (mostly fresh water, tho salt water seeped in under ground). The water past that thin bit of land is the salt water of the Pacific Ocean. Ok, I’m not right on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. But in the view below from my campsite, I’m looking directly west from Whidbey Island and out through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, absolutely straight out to the Pacific Ocean. Yes, the ocean is many miles away, but it’s right straight out there, and storms come in here full force. But this time of year, and this week, it was calm, and it was heaven. 🙂
Looking to the side of my rig (below) you can see that you can’t see anyone … no neighbors. That’s “my” picnic table in the photo below.
After I had leveled and unhitched the trailer (no plugins to electricity or water here), I began to explore my surroundings. Just past the picnic table in the photo above, I found this little trail through the woods (below). Ok, where does it go?
It led to this trail below.
And to this trail below.
After following those two trails for 30 minutes or so, I needed to get back to my trailer to fix dinner and settle in for the evening. I will explore those trails more in the days to come. But on my way back to my trailer, I happened to look up to the left at one point … photo below … that’s Towhee the Trailer! in her campsite. How cool was that. 🙂
And then below … back in my trailer, after dinner … a lovely sunset.
What a wonderful first evening here. More to come.