Disappointment and Deception



View of the Pacific Ocean from the North Head Lighthouse Trail
 at Cape Disappointment State Park

 

 

North Head Lighthouse

After almost 6 weeks in Oregon, we are now in Washington.  Our first ‘port of call’ was Cape Disappointment State Park across the Columbia River in the far southwestern corner of the state. This beautiful coastal park contains the junction of the Columbia River with the Pacific Ocean.  These waters are some of the most dangerous in the Pacific with breaking waves and sand bars clogging the opening to the coast.  

 

Secluded cove near North Head Lighthouse

In 1788 following his unsuccessful search for a safe passage through the mouth of the Columbia River, British fur trader John Meares called this headland Cape Disappointment.  A few years later in 1792 the American captain, Robert Gray, gave the Columbia River its name after making the first successful crossing of the bar into the river.  Since that time these treacherous waters have claimed over 2,000 vessels.  That is the reason for the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast.  And it is also the reason that the Coast Guard has a large station located here.

 

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

We stayed two days in this historic and beautiful state park hiking in the coastal forest, strolling along the beaches and visiting two lighthouses.  I have to say that we were not disappointed.  The park has good interpretive signs along its trails and is also home to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  We were able to hike on a trail that followed part of the route Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery took when they first encountered the Pacific Ocean at Cape Disappointment in 1805.  How cool is that! 

 

Deception Pass Bridge 
Whidbey Island (left) and Fidalgo Island (right) with Pass Island in the middle

Two years ago we spent a couple of weeks in southern Washington around Mount St. Helens and some of the surrounding forests.  This year we made plans to visit friends in the Seattle area and meet some other friends in the North Cascades National Park so we drove directly from Cape Disappointment to Deception Pass, a state park on Whidbey Island near Seattle.

 

Deception Pass Bridge

 

Deception Pass State Park straddles Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands – two of the largest islands dotting the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Rosario Strait.  There is a soaring bridge that connects the two islands and the narrow channel of water below the bridge is the only channel for many miles both north and south.  When the tide is running, a huge volume of water funnels through this narrow opening resembling a white-water river. 

 

Looking out towards the San Juan Islands from Rosario Head Trail

For a little history, the first European explorers of the late 1700s mistakenly assumed Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands to be part of the mainland and thought the powerful currents flowing between them indicated a mighty river to the east.  Captain George Vancouver realized this mistake and coined the name “Deception Pass” in 1792 as he explored the Northwest Passage.  David and I walked along this bridge and it is very impressive looking down the 186 feet to the churning waters below.  We could well imagine how the explorers were deceived.
 

Hoypus Point Natural Area Trail through old growth cedars and firs

 

Three idyllic days went by before we knew it.  The weather was perfect; no rain, just a little morning fog and pleasantly warm afternoons with blue skies.  We did have one little crisis though.  On one of our hikes Maya got stung by a bee on her paw.  It really hurt and she did not want to walk on it.  We had a choice, we could just hang out and wait until she felt like walking or David could practice his fireman’s carry.  We did hang out for a little while but since we were only about 1 ½ miles from our car David decided to carry Maya.

 

She ain't heavy, well, not that much anyway

This is kind of fun after all...

Thanks for the lift!  I'm feeling better.

As usual, Maya was a great sport.  She was a little apprehensive at first but she relaxed and got into being a much taller dog.  I think she rather enjoyed looking down on me as we hiked back to the car.  David held up amazingly well.  I couldn’t have carried her that far without really paying for it.   After several hours the swelling in Maya's paw started to go down and by later that afternoon she was barely limping.  David, however, was not eager to carry Maya again anytime soon and was counting his blessings that she wasn’t a Saint Bernard.  By the next day both victim and rescuer were ready to go hiking again.  And so we did, very thankful that all was well.

 

David's Stats:
Days Hiked   4
Total Miles Hiked   25.75  
Ave. Miles per Day      6.44
Total Elevation Gain     3,703
Ave. Elevation Gain per day   926

 

 

Wildlife

 

 

 

 

Black slug (brown color variant)

 

 

Banana slug eating a mushroom

 

 

Banana slug
(David calls these spotted ones 'over ripe bananas')