Our trip to South Whidbey Island State Park, Washington - September 2007...
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Jackie and I took the RV and all six cats and headed to the South Whidbey Island State Park for the long, Labor Day weekend in September. You can make reservations here. There are electrical and water hookups at 8 sites in this campground and about 45 other RV sites with a maximum length of 50 feet. I rated this campgorund a 5 out of 10 for a lack of privacy at any of the hookup sites. |
| Part of the road in is two way but very narrow. I'd hate to meet a big rig on the way out... |
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We're in site 31E. This is a utility site (water and power only). The bike is unloaded and ready to ride. Ahhh, who says you can't have it all? Note one of our six kitties, Pearl, on the driver's side dashboard watching for squirrels... |
| This site is fairly level side to side but fore and aft we need to use blocks and still only got close to level. But it was long enough for our 35 footer and the bike trailer... |
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Tom was already in site 36 and watching me back the rig in. Probably hoping I'd mess up so he could ride me endlessly. Fortunately (and surprisingly) I made it in without a hitch (so to speak)... |
| Tom's dog was glad to see us. Just someone else to throw sticks for him... |
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This being an odd year, the Humpies were running and our neighbor across the way had caught his limit. Another name for Humpies is "Pink" salmon. This name was given to them by marketing magnates who felt that "Humpy" just didn't sound quite as good... |
| Here they are all fileted and ready for the BBQ. They sold a couple of these filets to Tom and he had one for dinner each night... |
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Jackie and I rode the bike down to Bush Point to get this picture of the folk Humpy fishing from the banks... |
| This fellow appeared to be having a lot of fun but we didn't see anyone catch a fish while we were there. It was low tide and fishing was supposedly better during the high tide... |
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There's always fun at a boat launch. Looks like this fellow launched his boat a bit short of the water. Boo boos like this one always draw a crowd... |
| Tom and I had fish for dinner. He had fresh Humpy. My King salmon filet is in the center and Jackie had this nice steak. MMmmmmm! Delicious! |
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After dinner each night was the campfire and, of course, the obligatory campfire picture... |
| A closer look... |
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There were a lot of rabbits running around. This one is across the road from our campsite and it just looks so cuuute! |
| But at night they turned into bloodthirsty little critters and it was best not to travel alone after dark! Here one lurks by the path hoping for a tasty camper to wander by... |
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We decided to take the trail down to the beach... |
| Nice trail with a heavy ground cover of vegetation... |
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Here's a field of nettles. Best to stay away from these plants although they reputedly make a nice tea and can be boiled and eaten, when the shoots are young and tender... |
| Getting closer. We can see Bush Point in the distance through the trees.... |
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We did need to be careful where we placed our feet on the trail. Slugs are tough to remove from one's shoe. |
| This Leopard slug is moving so fast it's blurry (or is the camera out of focus, hmmmm)... |
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Uh oh. Doesn't look like we'll be making it to the beach this trip. More on this later... |
| Hmmmm. Which way to go now? Well, we came from the campground so we'll head the other way.... |
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This looks promising and we really like the "easy" part... |
| This campground lost over a hundred trees during the storms of 2006. Nature will eventually reclaim these trees... |
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Here's a fungus working on a live tree... |
| Still some mushrooms here and there although the season for mushrooms has passed... |
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After a nice walk we spied a welcome sight through the trees and bushes... |
| This Osprey was circling the campground and beach looking for its dinner... |
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It was getting close to sunset so I thought I'd go see if I could find a spot for a picture so back to the end of the trail sign. Many of the fisherman had been going past this sign to get to the beach. I'd thought I'd chance it as well for a picture... |
| The bank had sloughed away taking part of the trail with it but it was still passable if care was taken to stay to one side. This picture is looking back up the trail... |
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There was a payoff at sunset as I captured this view... |
| Another shot of the end of the day... |
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We had some new neighbors pull in Sunday night. There was a whole herd of them, it appeared. Three cars and there must have been over 16 people in the site next to us... |
| It looked like tent city and they were sleeping on cots and in the back of the pickup as well as the three tents. Their campfire was right outside of our bedroom window and they stayed up 'til early hours jabbering away. Might have been fun to eavesdrop but I didn't speak whatever language they were speaking. Hmmm, should I fire up the generator? |
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We walked around and checked out other camping sites for future reference. Site 1 is a small pull through. Looks somewhat private and is unserviced... |
| Site 8 is also a small, unserviced pull through. Also looks a bit more private... |
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It looked like we could squeeze into Site 14. Also unserviced but it is overlooking the water... |
| Site 16 looked longer and somewhat private... |
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Site 30E is serviced but not very private with another site right behind it... |
| Site 32E is serviced and more private but this is a site reserved for the disabled... |
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Sites 11, 12 and 13 would be good if you were camping with a group (unserviced)... |
| We enjoyed our time at South Whidbey Island State Park but decided that if we came back it would be during the off season and we would probably choose a different site.... |
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