Craft Island Revisited 3-16-13

Gray out, and a little drippy plus sleeping in a bit later than I expected kept us close by for hiking this Saturday.  Since we wanted to take both dogs, and leashless is more fun for them, we went to the Craft Island area.  This muddy choose-your-own-adventure area is fun in many ways, including the drive out.  It looks different at all times of year, and this time of year the surrounding farmland is full of flocks of swans and snow geese.

We don't always make it all the way to the green hill that is Craft Island, often thwarted by tricky canals and deep mud.  Today we made it though, and enjoyed the views of the area.

Going up the hill, there is a really thick fuzzy light colored moss.  I'm not sure what it is, but it looks really cool.  I don't recall ever seeing it anywhere else.  I know there is a spot of water on my lens.  It was raining off and on.

After enjoying the top of the island, we went down on the 'backside' of it, as the tide was out and we could walk all the way around it pretty much.  Junior and Cedar turned into puppies as they played on the beach.

Here is a view of Craft Island from the far side.

At the last bit, we had to work our way up and around a canal and Dave spotted this large beaver nearby!  We hadn't seen any here before and he was close so we got a nice look at him.

Craft Island 4-2-12

Wow!  I didn't realize how long it had been since I updated my blog!  Well a couple weekends ago, Dave and I took Cedar and Junior the dogs back out to the wildlife area near Craft Island and actually got to the top of it for a nice picnic lunch.  On the way there, we passed these huge flocks of snow geese landing and then taking off again.  Beautiful!

This time it was Junior that jumped into the irrigation ditch instead of Cedar.  Heh heh.  The mud isn't nearly as impressive on a tall dog though.  : )

The grasses here are all cut through with little canals you have to go along or cross.  It's very muddy.

Once at the top we enjoyed a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape, wading herons and gulls, and the little island itself which was quite pretty on this sunshiny day.

It was after this excursion we actually discovered the island was called Craft Island, and that the logs that are all piled up there are because it is an estuary of the Skagit River.  I wouldn't want to be there during flood warning times!