Anacortes, tide pools

August, 2020

I love saltwater tide pools and all the tiny creatures that live there. Tide pools make for great exploration. I was looking forward to exploring the tide pools at Rosario Beach that I had heard about, near the southwest corner of Fidalgo Island. But I didn’t realize until this second-to-the-last day here that I had mis-read my tide tables. The best time to explore tide pools are at the lowest of the low tides. But, the LOW low-tides here these last two days were at 3am! At that time of the night, I was going to be sound asleep, snuggled up in my comfortable, warm bed inside Towhee the Trailer. The other two low tides of these last two days were at about 4pm, perfect timing for a visit but they weren’t very low tides … the tide wasn’t going to be very far out … there would still be lots of water covering up the rocks and creatures, making it impossible to see everything that would have been visible at a LOW low tide.

But, I wanted to go anyway, so off I went in the afternoon right about 2pm so I would be at the tide pools around 4pm. A little salt water covering up things wasn’t going to stop me!

Here’s where I went …

First off, just to remind you, here’s Fidalgo Island above (circled in red). The RED star in the upper left was where I was camped. Fidalgo is a good-sized island! Where I went to see the tide pools was in the lower left corner of Fidalgo … just south of the word “Rosario” on the map above. [Note: on the map above, just off the northern tip of Whidbey, the map says “Simlik Bay”. The name of the bay is actually Similk Bay. I copied this map off of Microsoft Maps. Just because something is on the internet, doesn’t make it true! Also, do not pronounce Similk like it is spelled … the locals will laugh. 🙂 ]

The map above is for you Readers who might like to go here one day, or who just might like to see a bit more detail of where I went. Pass Island (in between Fidalgo to the north, and Whidbey to the south) is right in the middle of Deception Pass, that whirlwind of a waterway that can tear your boat apart with waves taller/larger/stronger than your boat, or it can be as flat as a pancake, just depends on the tide/current and the wind.

It was a lovely calm day here today. Most of the time that I was here today, I was scrambling among the rocks in the tide pools off the southern shore of Rosario Beach … or I was on the beach itself … or I was on a low cliff overlooking Sharpe Cove … or I was exploring the small campground on the north shore of Bowman Bay (a small campground but excellent!). All of this land is part of the State of Washington’s Deception Pass State Park.

So, let’s go see this place! It was really pretty here.

I parked the big white truck and walked into the park. The walkway through the park and then down to the beach and the tide pools was gravel, but well maintained and of gentle incline. It led eventually down to the beach and also out onto the peninsula that separates the two bays (Rosario and Sharpe) from each other. There were lots of trails. I explored a few, but not many.

Still up in the park, every view westward out over the water towards the San Juan Islands and out the Strait of Juan de Fuca towards the Pacific Ocean was gorgeous.

Above, Sharpe Cove with its long pier and boat dock was somewhat sheltered from storms that would come in from the ocean, mostly in winter. Today (in August), everything was so beautiful and peaceful, as it usually is here.

I walked past a delightfully designed and constructed picnic/gathering shelter (above).

The shelter had wooden picnic tables and benches, a fireplace, electrical outlets, and water faucets (and sinks) inside.

And inside, it had a view of the tide pool rocks … and then even further the view continued out the Strait of Juan de Fuca, out to the ocean, and (but for the curvature of the earth) all the way to Japan. How enchanting.

But I’m here for a reason … let’s get down to the beach!

One of the reasons I like camping during the week, Sunday through Friday, is that most public gathering places are empty, or close to it, during the week. I like people, don’t get me wrong, but I also like space and quiet. This beach, Rosario Beach, can be packed on weekends. Today was perfect.

From the map above, you can see that this bay, this beach, faces directly west, and (except for a bit of protection from the San Juan Islands) it is wide open to the west, to the Pacific Ocean.

From my spot on the beach in the photo above, I turned to the left, to the west …

There are the San Juan Islands in the distance, the southern end of them, and here are the beginnings of the tide pool rocks!

Turning a little further to the left, more tide pool rocks. Gosh I wish that tide was further out! But when I looked into the distance, I knew I was looking out through the Strait and directly at the Pacific Ocean … ok, maybe it was 100 miles or so from where I was standing and then out the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the ocean, but I was looking right at it. And yet, look how calm the water was, not hardly a ripple.

The next thing I noticed was this long yellow line in the water, seemingly attached in places. Hmmm, what’s with that?

Well, it sure was attached on purpose … every few yards. So I looked around and that’s when I noticed there was a State Park Ranger/Naturalist talking with a small group of folks on the beach. I walked back and listened. She talked about the plants and animals in the tide pools of course, but she also asked us to follow the line, stay close to it, and not disturb the rest of the area. She said the tide pools were so very delicate and in danger of being destroyed. She asked us to help preserve them by staying off of them except for the narrow area along this long thin line. That was ok with me.

And then she turned us loose to explore the tide “pools”. I put that word in quotes because the tide was still in/up pretty far, and there weren’t really any “pools” we could access. But I walked and crawled along that line and in through the water as far as I dared.

 

 

Nearby signs above. A few of my own photos below.

Acorn Barnacles.

 

I didn’t know what anything in these photos are, except the barnacles … barnacles of all sorts and sizes are everywhere in the Pacific Northwest! When I turned to seek the knowledge of the Ranger/Naturalist and ask her, she was way down the beach, walking towards another group of people a long way away.

Readers … what are these plants/animals in these photos?

 

The protuberances, the poke-out thingies, were also on the “leaves” from which these pods grew. What are these plants? Who eats them? What do they eat? What part do they play in the cycle of life? The pods/sacks appeared to be filled with air or gas … why? what? how? etc.

Ahhhh, sigh … eventually I got my head (and my camera) out of the tide pools and looked up around me. At exactly that moment, three people in kayaks paddled by. What a wonderful world.

The tide was now rising, covering up what little I had seen of the tide pools. So I started walking back up the path to my truck.

I wish I could share the sounds (the lapping water against the rocks and the beach, the seagulls’ calls). But more than that, I wish I could share the smell of fresh salt water, of fresh tidal rocks and basins … how rich it all smells … how alive, how sweet.

As I walked away from Rosario Beach, I again detoured over to Sharpe Cove for one last look.

The sun was about to set in the west, way off to the right in the photo above. You can see the western, setting sun shining on a couple of the tree trunks.

How perfect this day was, how perfect this world is. I have one more full day here on Fidalgo after this one, then I’ll head home. One more full day after this one! Tonight, I’ll dream of tide pools and the creatures that live there. But then, tomorrow … one more adventure I’m sure. 🙂

 

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12 Responses to Anacortes, tide pools

  1. Jim&Janey says:

    Ann, I have to say, Janey and I met when we were both mucking about in an ocean tide pool here in British Columbia, on the inside shore of Vancouver Island. We both smelled like salt water, and were rather pathetic looking because of how wet we were (or maybe just I was). But we certainly weren’t dressed to impress! And yet we connected and the rest they say is history. Your blog post reminded us that we haven’t been tide pool spelunking for YEARS! And so we will again go. Thank you!
    Oh, we don’t know what those plants are either … hope someone else here does.
    Jim

    • Ann says:

      Jim & Janey, you get back out there into those tide pools right now! 🙂 The world of the ocean, the world of saltwater, is so spectacular, so different from the world of air where we live. Your story is a good reminder to all of us to get out there and discover new things, or just as importantly, re-discover what’s really important.

  2. Dawn says:

    This all looks so wonderful, I’d definitely enjoy camping up at the tip of your island! I don’t know anything about tidal pools, being from Michigan, but I have seen park structures like the buildings you showed, in NY state, built in the 40s, perhaps yours were built then too. Very sturdy but beautiful structures. I wonder if I’ll ever get way out west to explore, that’s part of the country I’ve never visited. In the meantime, I’m counting on you to share your adventures so I can go with you if only online!

    • Ann says:

      I can’t find anything online that gives the date of that picnic structure, but I’d bet it was built in/around those same years prior to WWII when so many government projects were happening. I bet you’re right, I hadn’t thought about that.
      Well, you really should get out here … and I really should get back to Michigan and the Great Lakes since my dad’s family is from there (Kalamazoo and Canada north of Michigan) … and because that wood boat I owned for 18 years was built in Port Clinton and plied the waters of Lake Erie for 15-20 years before it came west to Seattle on the train.
      I’ll keep sharing my adventures for sure Dawn. And you do the same please. 🙂

  3. Ruby Begonia says:

    The plant with the protuberances (the pointy things) is Bladder Wrack or Fucus Vesiculosus and has many medicinal uses. Lots of info online. This is the wikipedia site, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fucus_vesiculosus.

    • Ann says:

      Thank you! Ruby you are terrific. But now I want to know what “wrack” is. I’ve looked online and find there are a great number of sea plants with “wrack” in their common name. Why? Maybe they grow so prolifically that they bring destruction or “wrack and ruin” to other plants in the area? Hmmm, another puzzle. 🙂

  4. Kristin says:

    Another day in paradise!

  5. Tim in Montana says:

    Another great blog post Ann. What you wrote and the comments got me to thinking about tides and whether lakes have tides. I looked on Google to see the largest lakes in the world, here’s the list: Caspian Sea, Lake Superior, Lake Victoria, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. So three of them are connected in the Great Lakes between the US and Canada. But the Caspian sea is huge! It’s larger than the next nine largest lakes in the world all put together. I can’t find out whether it has tides or not, but as large as it is maybe it does. How do we find out?

    • Ann says:

      Another good question Tim. I did some sleuthing on the internet and found that some extremely large lakes have tides, of a sort, but that they are more properly called seiches which are not necessarily created by the pull of the moon (regular ocean tides are created by the pull of the moon). And, tides or seiches in the very largest lakes aren’t more than a few inches, and can be attributed to wind at least in part. The Caspian Sea might have been large enough to have “real” tides if the length of it ran west-east, but the length of it runs north-south so the moon has little effect on the water there. This is the bones of what I found online. If anyone reading here has better or different information, please feel free to post it here.

  6. Reader Ruth says:

    This was all so wonderful. I really love that photo looking through the window of the old cabin and down to the tide pool rocks and then out to the ocean. A dreamy place and yet real. Thank you!

    • Ann says:

      I love that photo for exactly that same reason, Ruth, and it felt exactly like that when I was standing there looking out the window. I stood and looked for quite a while.

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