Sucia Island Visit

My previous post was all about our boat trip to Sucia Island, but after our picnic dinner we had a chance to take a brief walk around part of the island, as well. The whole 564 acre island is a State Park, and a network of trails, 6.2 miles in total, lets you check out the coastline and associated views from all different angles.

The best wildlife viewing was right from the dock where we had our picnic, however. This family of Canada geese came by - probably looking for handouts. I thought it was interesting that the three goslings were still smaller than their parents but already had their adult-like plumage. There were several other goose families around and those goslings still seemed to be in between plumages. I took this photo right from the picnic bench:

A lot of the island is pretty narrow, so you can see water on both sides. There are lots of neat little coves with SANDY beaches - a novelty for those of us on San Juan Island where the rocky coastlines don't have much in the way of a beach, and when they do, it's just made of smaller rocks. There were also sea shells and different types of rocks than we see on "our" beaches. Here are four members of the crew doing a little beach-combing next to Fox Cove:

If one of the beach-combers pictured above took a left and walked about 75 yards, they would be looking at this cove, part of Fossil Bay, on the other side of the island. Check out those cliffs! (Do you see the two Canada geese? You may have to click to enlarge the photo...)

In addition to different rocks and shells, there were some different flowers on Sucia, as well. There wasn't time to take a close look at many of them, but these tiger lilies definitely stood out:

In addition to the boaters who moor in one of Sucia's bays, there is a campground on the island for kayakers or people who don't want to sleep on their boat. Each camp spot is equipped with a picnic table and fire pit, and there were a few group camp sites that had shelters built around the picnic tables. This would have been a perfect time to camp there - beautiful weather, clear views in all directions, and there was only one tent in sight. I can only imagine what it would be like there if every one of the 55 camp spots was full, though - more like a little city!

I climbed up a bluff at one tip of the island, and found this tree overhanging the cliff edge. The San Juan Islands are in the background: