Camano Island State Park 4-20/21-19

This adventure involved breaking out my freshly de-winterized trailer and towing it, with Dave and the adventure dogs, to Camano Island State Park.  It was both 420 and Easter weekend, and the campground filled up fast.  Luckily Dave thought ahead and drove out to reserve a spot earlier in the day on Friday.  We didn't get the same spot, but it still had a fantastic view over Saratoga Passage and Whidbey Island.

The first evening we were there we saw a few whale spouts from humpbacks, but they didn't show themselves like they did last time.  The sunrises and sunsets were so beautiful over the water, even the muted pastel ones the crept out from around the clouds. 

There is something extra wonderful about being able to wake up and go out into a hushed dawn, with no sounds of traffic or sirens or even many other people that time of day - and go walk through the forest and down along the beach.  Cedar and Luna didn't seem to mind getting a couple miles in before breakfast either.

Camano Island State Park is really beautiful.  The sites are well-kept, and there are trees and bushes in between so you have some sort of sense of privacy and nature even though your neighbors aren't too far.  Most sites have nice flat areas for tents, and most are generous enough to pull a trailer into - even some pull-throughs. 

My trailer ended up being a little bit of an adventure on its own.  Without shore power the outlets didn't work, so Dave took a power pack for his anti-sleep apnea machine.  That only lasted part of one night.  In addition we noticed that the refrigerator, which is supposed to run on either electric or gas was choosing not to run on gas and electric wasn't an option for it.  So by the end of the weekend our cold food was pretty much room temperature.  haha  The dogs' least favorite part was when I cooked bacon and forgot to run the fan.  That little trailer has quite the smoke alarm!  Ugh.  Other than those things though, I really adore it - it's just the right size, comfortable, and I love the lay-out.

I think my favorite part of this weekend was all the wildlife.  I saw loons, white-crowned sparrows, bald eagles, gold finches, a garter snake, a mole, harbor porpoises, and more.  My time spent there left me both refreshed and wanting more. 

Camano Island State Park 03/31-04/-01/2018

This adventure was the maiden voyage of my new camper trailer.  This way I can get out even in the rain, be more comfortable at night, and stay longer hopefully!  The destination was Camano Island State Park, and neither Dave nor I had been there before.  It was Easter weekend, and wasn't supposed to be particularly warm or sunny, so we had a great campsite over looking the waterway between Camano Island and Whidbey Island.  

The view from campsite #9

Cedar and Luna hanging out by the trailer

Luna peeking out the window - Cedar in the background on the bed

I wondered about this tiny island - it is called Baby Island.  Perfect.

The park is on a hillside forested with fir, maple, hemlock and madrona.  It's also a network of trails, which was a lot of fun to explore.  Even the evening we got there, we had Cedar and Luna all over the place, and saw the full moon light the silver sea with a path of gold.

Madrona clinging to the bluff heights

The full moon was not this fuzzy really - it was so beautiful.

There were birds - bushtits, spotted towhees, white crowed sparrows, robins and eagles.  Even if you couldn't see eagles all the time, you could hear them throughout the day.  

Saturday morning, I took my adventure dogs down to the beach.  We saw a loon, and goldeneyes paired up and hunting in the shallows, as well as some immature bald eagles.  The waves were hardly a ripple against the shore of smoothed riverstone-like rocks.  

A pair of Barrow's Goldeneyes

A pair of Common Goldeneyes

This goldeneye is chowing down on a little crab

Immature bald eagle

Seagulls on a calm gray morning

Luna wading with enthusiasm

My canine adventure crew

Cedar prefers sunbathing over wading

A crow photobombed this picture of Luna

We took another hike back down later with Dave and it was sunny enough for us to get overheated as we walked.  Amazing!  I was not expecting such wonderful warm weather.  We went down a third time when my mother-in-law and brother-in-law came by for a picnic, although we hitched a ride with them back up the hill that time.  We ate overlooking the sea and saw a gray whale!  

A whale tail

Boat for scale

Sunday was drizzly and breezy, but we saw two more gray whales, and I took another hike down to the beach and back with Cedar and Luna.  It felt great to be hiking around so much, but in typical camping fashion I feel we had enough snacks to negate the efforts haha. 

I thought this driftwood looked like a pale lady looking out to sea

I highly recommend Camano Island State Park.  Not every campsite has a water view, but most have some separation from the campsites next to them, it is very clean and organized, and has showers as well... there is the beach, a boat launch, trails all over and for trailers - a dump station.  It was a perfect place for my first RVing experience, and so very peaceful.  I hope to come back again!