Fabulous February fun

West Beach at Deception Pass State Park

Today was a day like we haven't had in what seems like ages: full sun with little breeze, temperatures rising all day long to almost warm! (10°C or 51°F) Nineteen Senior Trailblazers drove down to Deception Pass State Park to hike up to Goose Rock. I know I swore I would never do this hike again after the last one, when we were subjected to nonstop Growler jets overhead. But Melanie found a website that showed us today's skies should be much less noisy, with only a few afternoon sorties starting farther south of us.

Indian plum in bloom

We saw signs of an early spring everywhere, along with the great weather. This is the first bloom I've seen this year in nature, other than domestic ones in town. I look forward to our first trillium, which can't be far away now.

Hikers passing under a madrona tree

There are so many beautiful madrona trees in this area, and I have enjoyed them every time we've come here. Today was no exception. We circumnavigated Goose Rock before the day was done, but because of some trail closures, we took a bit of a different route than usual to the top.

Our magnificent view as we ate lunch

We sat in our usual place at the top of Goose Rock, enjoying the beautiful view, and I didn't even have to put my coat on as I sat in the sunshine. Occasionally we would have a jet pass overhead, but mostly the entire day was just plain delightful. We spent a fair amount of time here, not really wanting to return to the cars too quickly.

Not quite ready to go

In this picture, you can see one of the jets, looking a bit like a stray (and very large) mosquito. Not long after I took this picture, a vulture soared overhead, wings spread to catch the light breeze. And then, reluctantly, we packed up for our return trip.

Mt Baker through the trees

We had many views of Mt Baker as we returned, and we saw a few other mountains in the distance. That first photo shows the Olympic Range, and we saw some others we are rarely able to see, because of the clear skies and lack of clouds.

Deception Pass bridges

We walked down to the beach before we reached the cars, just to spend some time picking up rocks and enjoying the perfect day. There is some kind work being done over there, so I looked it up and found this notice.

At 83 years old, the Deception Pass Bridge and Canoe Pass Bridge are looking really good!  But, it's time for a paint job.  So, starting in May of 2019, crews will be on the job.  They'll be painting the bridge the same color it is now, Evergreen Green.

This will continue for several months, finishing sometime late this year, it seems. In any event, I'm glad they are doing upkeep on these magnificent structures, and it didn't impact us too much on our hike today. We covered just under eight miles by the time we got back to the cars and made our way back to the Senior Center. It was such a great day, and I'm feeling so glad I went along with the others!
:-)