July, 2021
The word Illahee might be confusing, depending on the font used to type it. The first letter is an i, then two l’s, then there’s the last bit “ahee”. The accent is on the first syllable … ill-a-hee. It’s a Chinuk Wawa (Chinook) word that means earth or country or where one resides or, simply, home.
I have passed by the Illahee State Park beach and the dock there so many times that I won’t even hazard a guess at how many times … all by boat, in one or the other of the two boats that I’ve owned in my 29 years of boating on Puget Sound. I never stopped at the dock there with either of my boats because the dock is fairly small, and it’s open to wind and the wakes of other passing boats … and it seems I’ve always been on a mission to get somewhere else north or south to meet up with friends of mine who were also out cruising.
So I’ve seen this beach a lot of times! But I’ve never been to Illahee State Park or its beach by land, so I had to fumble around and figure out how to drive there from my boondocking spot in Bremerton. No problem, the big white truck knew exactly how to get to Illahee State Park. 🙂
Downtown Bremerton and the Navy installations are at the bottom of the image above. The RED square is where I was boondocked in quiet northern Bremerton. The RED arrow points to Illahee State Park. It was less than a ten minute drive. You might also notice that there is a small community named Illahee north of the state park.
I drove through the state park campground first. The road is narrow and the campsites are a shade too small for my truck and trailer. But it was a lovely, wooded state park. In fact, it’s reported that there are a number of acres of old-growth forest here. It is home to one of the nation’s oldest Pacific yews, which has been standing for approximately 400 years.
Then I drove down to the state park beach. What a gorgeous day and a gorgeous place!
Below … looking southeast. This is all part of Illahee State Park, including the pier and the dock out at the end of the pier.
Below … looking northeast.
I parked and went exploring. The big white truck is on the left in the photo below. The opening in the fence on the right side of the photo is a small boat ramp. I went out there first, drawn by the water.
I walked down the beach then up onto the pier and walked out to see what the folks out there were doing. People were chatting and laughing, watching the birds and the sky and the water. And there was one sailboat (in the photo below) that had a “dive” flag flying, which meant there were divers in the water. The woman on the sailboat was obviously looking at something, maybe talking with someone in the water. It was busy out here; people were having a grand day.
These two folks in the photo below paddled by.
I looked back north along the beach. The man and the boy hadn’t launched the kayaks yet. I think the kid was completely taken by the beach and the waves, not sure he really needed to go kayaking to have fun. On the other hand, there’s nothing like being out on the water and it looks like his parents are easing him into that.
Then I turned and looked to the south, down the beach. More kayaks were beached up on the sand, a few sailboats were anchored out with owners onboard enjoying the day as well.
Ah ha! Two humans surfaced out in the water … divers! They chatted quite a while, then dove again.
Then several divers surfaced. They swam towards shore and walked out of the water up onto the beach, then up onto the pier and then back out to that sailboat with the “dive” flag on it. From the talk I could hear, it appeared this was a training session and the instructor was the one on the left in the photo below.
I chatted with a few people here at the beach, but mostly I walked or stood and enjoyed the warm sunshine and watched people having fun, and breathed in the saltwater air, and listened to the water and the birds. I was about to head back to the truck when I spied the boat below cruising northbound, past the Illahee State Park beach. There was no name on the boat (usually the name is on the transom, the back end of the boat), but I swear it was Savona, a boat that was owned by a friend of mine, John, in the classic wood boat club that I belonged to. John sold the boat years ago. I haven’t seen John for many years, but I still loved seeing the boat again, seeing an old friend again.
What a perfect morning.