May 16-21, 2021
First camping trip of 2021 … let’s go!
What a delight to be heading out! This was my first camping trip of 2021, it was gorgeous spring weather, and I was sure looking forward to the week. Here I am (above) having just arrived at Fort Ebey State Park (on Whidbey Island) with my big white truck and Towhee the Trailer. Isn’t this beautiful? (click to enlarge photos)
Let me show you where I am.
On the map above … one RED arrow points to the northern section of Whidbey … another RED arrow points to the southern section of Whidbey. On the left side of the map above, there is a YELLOW arrow with RED dots on it that points to Fort Ebey State Park on the western-most point of Whidbey Island, and that’s where I went camping for the week, with friends there too.
To get there, I drove north on I-5 from home, through Tacoma, through Seattle, through Everett, through Marysville (it was a long drive, but easy enough on a Sunday morning). Then just a bit north of the town of Mount Vernon, I turned left off of I-5, then drove out to and onto Fidalgo Island and turned left again and eventually drove south across the Deception Pass Bridge and onto Whidbey Island. I drove through the town of Oak Harbor, then turned right just before reaching Coupeville … following the signs to the campground and then following the signs to my campsite.
My campsite was a pull-through so I didn’t even have to back in. Easy as pie (marionberry pie is my favorite). The campground and my campsite were magnificent!
Not 15 minutes after I arrived, friends of mine in their Escape trailer arrived. We had planned the camping week together, but we hadn’t coordinated our arrival time. Obviously, we were both right on time. 🙂 They backed into their campsite (right next to my campsite), and we were home!
We took time to set up our rigs, leveling, tidying, unhitching, etc.
And then we took off on foot to explore our surroundings. We started by following a short trail that led through some thick trees at the back of my friends’ campsite, and then that trail opened up onto this great path (below) along the bluff.
We were up on a bluff on the western edge of Whidbey Island. We had a view to the southwest out over the northern waters of Puget Sound and, in the distance, we had a view of the Olympic Peninsula and some of the Olympic Mountains. Turning to the right, we had a view directly west out the Strait of Juan de Fuca (towards Japan), and a view northwest to Vancouver Island in Canada.
Above … the view to the southwest, looking south down Puget Sound,
with the Olympic Mountains on the right.
Above … looking northwest, straight out the Strait on the left (towards Japan),
and with a bit of Vancouver Island off in the distance on the right.
As you can see, evening was approaching. The sky was darkening. A very pretty sunset appeared, but the trail back through the woods to our campsites was getting very dark. So we decided to head back to our homes on wheels for a bite of supper before bedtime.
I took the photo above as we walked back in through the trees towards our campsites. The trailer above is my friends’ Escape (ETI) travel trailer, very similar to mine.
I then walked just a few feet over into my own campsite.
I had inadvertently left the light on inside my trailer. But walking up to the trailer in the semi darkness, I really liked that the light was on. It felt warm and welcoming, just like home. 🙂
Adventures to come! Stay tuned. 🙂