July, 2021
Today was a lovely day. It was a day with such beautiful, sunshiny, summer weather that I jumped in my big white truck and just drove … I didn’t really care where to, I just drove. I ended up driving over to Camano Island from where I was boondocked, then I drove down the west side of Camano Island, and then drove back up the east side of Camano Island. That should take just a few minutes on an island, yes?
No! Camano Island is not the largest island in Puget Sound here in the State of Washington, but it is sizable. It’s almost 18 miles from north to south, although it’s not very wide from east to west. It’s a beautiful island, so I drove slowly to look and enjoy. And the road is a very nice two-lane road, but it winds around here and there, and then simply stops with a stop sign once in a while, and then you drive on. So, you can see, it took a good full day to “drive the island.”
In the map below, I’m boondocked/camped at the northern end of Lake Goodwin (the RED star). I drove up to Stanwood, then across the bridge to Camano Island and then I enjoyed a drive all the way down and then back up the island. You can see that the BIG Pacific Ocean is directly off to the left, but that Camano Island is nicely protected by Whidbey Island.
At the northern end of Camano Island, at Utsalady Point, I took a short detour to where my very favorite Aunt and my very favorite Uncle had lived for many years in a cabin/home there. It was right smack dab on the edge of the beach, with just a slightly raised sand breakwater in between the home and the beach. Sitting inside the house or out on the deck, you had a perfect view of the water and Whidbey Island to the north, and Mt. Baker to the northeast. My Aunt Hallie called that mountain “Mr. Baker” (because of the face on it). She loved that mountain.
After leaving the north end of Camano, I headed south along the western side of the island, with stupendous views out over the water towards Whidbey Island. I was so happy and peaceful that I didn’t stop to take pictures, I just cruised on along. I figured that I would be back here, and go camping on Camano Island, and THEN I’ll take more pictures to show you.
Eventually, I reached Camano Island State Park at the southern end of the island. How lush and rich it is.
Not another human being in sight!
The photos above are where I parked rather haphazardly. I usually try to park between the white lines, but there wasn’t another soul in sight so I just parked where the big white truck decided to stop. Good enough!
The photo immediately above is looking west, out across the salt water to Whidbey Island. [For those of you who know this area, I’m probably looking right at Greenbank on Whidbey, just north of Holmes Harbor where I grew up.] In the photo above, a fast power boat is cruising by, south bound. In my boating days, I cruised these waters many times. So this made me think about other people who were here in this same State Park back then when I was a boater, and that they were likely looking out at me and my boat as I cruised by. I liked that.
The Pacific Northwest is so beautiful. It has such an abundance of trees and flowers and shrubs and lichens and all manner of healthy, growing things because of the moisture here, and the relatively mild winters. One of the things that we who were raised here love is the rich undergrowth, the understory, below the trees … salal and rhododendrons, ferns, vine maple, huckleberry, thimbleberry, salmonberry, trillium, oregon grape (not a grape), skunk cabbage, oh the list goes on … the number of plants that grow under our trees is so healthy and numerous that, in a healthy forest setting, you cannot easily walk there! It’s a rich environment that folks from the east coast sometimes don’t feel comfortable with … it’s crowded here in our forests, and we who grew up here love it.
One of our favorite trees hereabouts is the Madrona. Folks from California call it a “Madrone”, but we here in the Pacific Northwest know better. 🙂 In the photo below, I’m looking up at a particularly gorgeous bunch of limbs of a Madrona tree here in the park.
And, of course, there are the abundant and exquisite Douglas Fir trees and their seed cones. Yes, we love Cedar trees too, but Douglas Fir may touch our hearts even more deeply.
It’s such a beautiful world. I’ve been to many other places on this planet and am always so amazed by the beauty all over the world. And yet, when I come home, there’s no place like the Pacific Northwest and its saltwater Puget Sound and its islands and trees, its beaches and mountains and lakes and waterfalls (our own little local Snoqualmie Falls at 270 feet tall is 100 feet taller that Niagara Falls).
This is an exceptionally peaceful spot on our planet. I stood here for a long time. You can bet I’ll be back for a camping week right here at Camano Island State Park, and I’ll tell you all about it.
In the meantime though, today, I’ll head back up the east side of Camano Island in my big white truck, back to my boondocking spot at the north end of Lake Goodwin. Towhee the Trailer waits patiently for my return. 🙂