Deception Pass State Park

Hiked On: May 21, 2005
Weather Conditions: Approximately 60°F, overcast, no wind
Elevation: 0-300'
Distance from Seattle: 80 miles
Pictures: Here
State Park: Deception Pass State Park

We've seen so many amazing pictures of Deception Pass that we decided to head out there to take a peek for ourselves. I decided to make a driving loop of the trip, heading north to Mukilteo and taking a ferry over to Whidbey Island and driving up the island to the park. Very nice drive, stopped at a little deli in Coupeville for lunch, and proceeded to hit some of the trails in Deception Pass.

The park itself wasn't too crowded for a Saturday, and we hiked three out of the ~11 trails that are on-site.

The first hike was hoofing it up to Goose Rock Summit, a 0.5 mile loop to the highest point in Whidbey Island, for an elevation gain of around 300 ft. Wasn't much to see on the trail, but the view from the top was stunning – awesome views of the Puget Sound, Olympic Mountain Range and the Cascade Mountain Range.

The second walk we did was about half-way out to the West Point Amphitheater; the total round-trip would've been 1.8 miles over a rocky beach (no elevation gain), but we only made it about halfway — while taking pictures of the Deception Pass Bridge, a wave hit my shoe and soaked my foot. Note to self: water resistant shoes don't help when the water comes over the top. Second note to self: bring spare socks on these trips.

After letting my foot and sock dry off, we went to the other side on Fidalgo Island. Deception Pass is named for the approximately 0.2 mile pass between Whidbey and Fidalgo islands. On Fidalgo island, we did a 1.25 mile loop to Rosario Head. This trail claimed to have good close-up views of the bridge, but we were pretty disappointed – the views of the bridge were all blocked by thick forest. (I'm not saying forest is a bad thing – but we wanted to see the bridge) I suspect that the Lighthouse Point Loop would've given us the view we wanted, but by this point we were in the mood for a milkshake and figured we should head home.

After leaving, we drove up into Anacortes, which is a quaint little town on the sound that is used by several oil companies for refining and oil terminals. Anacortes is also a touristy spot due to it's being a hopping point to the San Juan Islands and it's Orca sightseeing tours. Interestingly enough, the Prius navigation system didn't show a single road above 12th Avenue in town – really weird. We left Anacortes and headed east through Mount Vernon and then back south to Seattle.

Alas, we didn't find any good places to stop for milkshakes on the way back.