May, 2021
Wake up! It’s a gorgeous day with sunshine! Yes, ok, we needed jackets for warmth today, but in the month of May, in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, we were certainly just very happy that it wasn’t raining. Let’s get going. 🙂
First thing this morning, I explored on foot inside the campground, just to get the lay of the land. You can see some of the amenities in the photo below.
Photos like this one might not be in everyone’s tour guide book, but this shows the care that is given to Washington State Parks. Of course there is a large garbage bin (on the left), but there are also recycle bins for glass, plastic, aluminum, and paper … even separate bins for clear glass, green glass, and “other” glass. The restrooms are cleaned regularly here.
I was just standing around in the area taking photos, not doing anything really, when a state parks employee came out of the restrooms and noticed me. He walked over and asked if I needed anything, if he could help. He was just the nicest guy. I told him I was camped here and was just taking photos of the services. He said to please let them know if anything was amiss, and to please let them know if I needed any info about the campground or the area around it on Whidbey Island. We chatted for just a minute or so, not long at all, but it made a difference. Just that little bit of time made a big difference. I’d sure like to see other business owners encourage their employees to do the same … take just a few moments to connect with another human being. What a difference that would make in this world!
That fellow jumped in his green jitney truck and drove off to take care of other stuff in the campground. And I wandered back to my campsite and snagged my friends so we could take a morning walk. Let’s go!
But where to go? There were a number of trails we could take … Kettles Trail?
Or the Bluff Trail?
We debated for only a second or two. Kettles trail led into woods and into a small valley, but the Bluff Trail led out to that gorgeous bluff that overlooked Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Canada, and who knew what else? The Bluff Trail it was … off we went!
We headed out through the deep dark woods around our campsites and then burst out into bright sunshine on that bluff trail. (click on photos to enlarge them)
We were amazed by the views … the waters of Puget Sound, the Olympic Peninsula, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, views of Canada to the north. It was amazing.
But, equally enchanting, were the folks who were out here with us in that small meadow at the edge of the bluff …
In fact, there were three deer in the area just below where we were standing on that path.
The blue water in the distance in the photos above is deceiving. The water is a long way down below the level of the meadow. And that water is not usually this calm and gentle. That water is the very eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, exactly precisely where the Strait comes in from the Pacific Ocean and then stops at Whidbey Island … the bluff! In the photos above, it may look like the water is just a tiny, tidy bit lower than the edge of the grassy area, but don’t be fooled … the water is a long way down!
And it may look like the water is quite benign. It usually isn’t. The full force of the Pacific Ocean is funneled in through the Strait and comes to land, hits land, right here.
Many years ago, my dad bought land on top of this bluff … in one winter, that land was gone! A huge chunk of the bluff was washed away by the Pacific Ocean. And the ocean had no intention of giving my father his money back!
But when we were here today, the ocean was lovely and peaceful. We scrambled down a path towards the beach, but it was so steep and treacherous that we decided to turn back and clamber back up to the path on top of the bluff.
The photo below is a zoomed in closeup of part of the photo above. There WAS a path in the trees, along the very edge of the trees, but you can see that the land is being eroded by wind and tide and storms off the ocean. If you were standing on that path, you might feel secure, it might look safe. But in truth, you were possibly only moments away from being on top of a landslide.
I’m glad they closed the path along that bluff in the photo above. The bluff path that we were using today was just enough further inland to be perfectly safe.
We then walked back in through the trees on another trail (there were so many!), in through the woods. We were headed back to our campsites.
We took our time, following different trails. We were in no hurry. Eventually, we made it back to our campsites. Part of the fun for me is sometimes not being real sure where I am or where I’m headed … so interesting paths open up.
Back at our campsites, we were standing around talking about lunch and what we might do this afternoon and stuff like that. I looked off to one side and noticed the tree in the photo below. Hey, why is there a tunnel in the air below the tree? Why is the tree up in the air like that?
It took me a moment, but I quickly remembered the term “nurse tree” … where a tree falls and begins to decay, and other trees grow out of that tree, grow out of the “nurse tree”. Then the nurse tree decays completely, leaving a space of air under the new trees, as the roots of the new trees wrap around where the “nurse tree” was.
That’s apparently exactly what happened here.
Looking more closely (below), you can see the WHITE arrow is pointing to what may have been an old branch that had been growing from the side of the nurse tree before it fell … and the RED arrow is pointing to the trunk of the original tree. Of course, the trunk originally stood upright, but when the tree died and fell, the trunk was then horizontal … and new trees grew from it.
The lateral or horizontal nature of the original trunk shows perfectly above. Trees build on each other, trees come into being from each other, trees support each other. It’s an amazing world, yes?