June, 2023
Another day in paradise … and another drive to explore the saltwater shores of Puget Sound.
This time, I first drove east, away from the water. I drove out of the Bay View campground, and then headed east over to Burlington, WA, and then turned north onto the road called Chuckanut Drive (the RED line in the photo below). I drove from Burlington in the south, to Bellingham in the north … and then, of course, I drove back south again. Except when I headed back south, when I got just past half way down, I left Chuckanut Drive and drove west to the village of Edison and then I drove down through farmland to Bay View and my campsite. What a wonderful drive!
I’ll share a few photos but first, what is a “chuckanut”? Darned if I know. Guess I better look it up online. Hmmm, well, I found out! Here’s a wikipedia article about the history of the road. The area along the road is the only area where the Cascade Mountains connect directly with Puget Sound, with no intervening low land or farm land. From the waters of Bellingham Bay (part of Puget Sound), the land travels east uphill all the way to the top of the Cascade Mountains.
And “Chuckanut Drive” is named after the nearby Chuckanut Mountains. A bit of interesting geology information is included in the article in this link. Chuckanut is a word taken from a native language, it means “long beach far from a narrow entrance” … and if you are familiar with the saltwater waterways here, that is exactly what it is. This water/bay is SO extremely protected from the ocean by dozens of islands, that it’s an extremely circuitous route to get from this waterway (Bellingham Bay and Padilla Bay) and then out to the ocean. So the original name is appropriate.
The four photos below were taken at a car pull-out along the Chuckanut Drive, while I was driving north from Blanchard. There are a number of places along that road where you can pull over, park, take photos, or even clamber down part of the HIGH bank there (no thank you!), or walk along a path that’s close to the top of the bank.
That’s my big white truck in the photo above.
And then, at another pull-out … this photo below. The ship is a container ship, likely heading out to the Pacific Ocean from the port of Bellingham, and likely around 1,000 feet in length (more than three football fields long). The photo below is looking west, directly at the Pacific Ocean except that there are all manner of islands in between where I was and where the Pacific Ocean is. Puget Sound is a VERY well protected body of water, and it’s huge, and it is a boater’s paradise.
At another stop along Chuckanut Drive, I found these two signs below. The photos in the second image below were taken circa 1920.
And now let me share two videos of my drive south from Bellingham. The first one below starts near the north end of Chuckanut Drive. I found a campground up there and drove through it to scope out future campsites (didn’t find any that I liked). As I was driving out of the campground, I set my video camera on the dash and pressed “go”. As always, click on the white rectangular thingy in the lower right hand corner to enlarge the video, or you can watch it on YouTube.
Early on in the video, you’ll see a sign on the right that says vehicles over 18,000 GVW prohibited … no semi trucks, none, not allowed! A bit later in the video you’ll see why. There is no shoulder, not even a ditch … just the two lanes with a rock wall on one side and a drop off on the other, and the road twists and turns. Even with just my pickup truck (obviously I didn’t have the trailer with me), even with just my pickup truck, I drove much slower than the posted speed limit through those twisty sections.
You won’t see much of the water to the west in this video, too many trees. I do love trees though. And most of Chuckanut Drive is high above the water. There are a few places to pull over and walk to the edge of the bluff/cliff in order to look out and see the water and islands (see photos above). This video is less than half of the entire Chuckanut Drive. Eventually, at the end of the video, I do get down to farmland level and then I pull over so you can see the water and the islands.
The music is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 2 No. 2. The music starts right after we pass the orange markers on the right.
This second video starts in the small village of Edison, then shows a bit of driving on the lowland between Edison and Bay View while I was heading back to the Bay View campground. The water you see in the video off to the right is saltwater … that’s how low this lowland is. In fact, I’m told some farmers are having problems with too much saltwater in their fields as the ocean height is increasing these days. But it sure is a pretty area, and the farms are gorgeous.
So that’s your tour of Chuckanut Drive! I hope you liked it. I loved it. 🙂
Again, I’ve been by here by boat, but I’ve never driven Chuckanut. I gotta go! And yes, Ann is right about the water here being so protected by so many islands. It really is a boater’s paradise with dozens and dozens of coves and bays to anchor in and so many marinas if you want to tie to a dock or need fuel. The choices never end. I don’t know of any place else on the planet that’s so protected and so beautiful for boaters … Puget Sound and west coast of Canada, the Salish Sea.
Rob, you and I have been everywhere in Puget Sound and Canada’s Gulf Islands, the Salish Sea, by boat it seems. I like that. I bet I’ve seen your boat and you’ve seen mine without even knowing it. Glad you’re along for my land yacht adventures. 🙂
Love the music. And what a beautiful place. Thank you.
Music is so important. Thanks Tina.
I always appreciate the maps and the history, local native names, geology. This is gorgeous. Wish I was close enough to drive the Chuckanut. 🙂
Thanks for letting me know you like all that detailed info. I do too! I’ll keep sharing it. Thanks Cindy.
Wow, gorgeous drive, but I wouldn’t want to drive that road with a small travel trailer in tow, not to mention a semi truck. I’m surprised they don’t prohibit any and all trailers and any vehicle over a certain length. We’ve had a travel trailer, last RV was a small motorhome. And yes what a beautiful part of the world you live in!
No, I wouldn’t either Marge … I wouldn’t drive the Chuckanut with a trailer in tow, even a small one. I too was surprised that they don’t prohibit trailers or vehicles over a certain length. They prohibit only vehicles over a certain weight. Seems odd.
One wonders if a road like that would be built today. I bet not. Whether because of cost or environmental concerns. I just bet we wouldn’t have that road today if it hadn’t been built back in …. ha! I almost said “back in the 20s”. But we ARE in the 20’s, just a different century. 🙂 Think about that, some day people will talk about what we’re doing right now as “back in the 20’s”.
Beautiful photos of the water and the islands. Thanks for taking us along on the drive. 🙂
Interesting thought, Bill. I hadn’t thought about that but yes, I bet this road wouldn’t be built today.
Ha! Yes! “back in the 20’s”. I started to finish your sentence in my mind with those exact words. But, whoa, indeed we are NOW in the 20’s. Oh my word that feels strange. 🙂
The music was very nice, made me pull out my CDs of Beethoven Piano Sonatas. My favorite is 31, but hey how can you pick a favorite?
What great history and old photos! I love stuff like this. You always give us lots of info from different angles, and links to online info. I always learn things and it’s never boring.
Favorite photo is the first one right below the map. I could build a little cabin there and live there forever.
You have the full set of Beethoven Piano Sonatas? I know just three or four other people who do. That’s cool, Lori. 🙂 And yes, my favorite is 31 as well, and yet No. 1 – II is so sweet.
Ok, friend, you figure out how to buy property along the Chuckanut and then build a house/cabin there and I will come visit and we can sit and listen to Beethoven while watching a gorgeous sunset over Padilla/Bellingham Bay.
From your word description, that drive sounds scary! And yet your photos and videos make it seem safe and comfortable. Ok, the road is squishy, yikes, skinny sometimes. I read in one of the web links that there was a move to ban bicycles from the road. I’m a bike rider, and I’m amazed that anyone would ride a bike on that road with cars/trucks behind them, trying to pass them, etc, with no room for error. Just seems dumb.
Chuckanut, from a native word. I like that.
I’m terrified of heights, Joe, so I thought I’d be scared on the Chuckanut, but I was not. Maybe it’s because there are trees on the downhill side, even though if you drove over that edge you would die, but still there are trees and that made it feel safe. It really did feel safe and ok.
There was one person on a bicycle when I drove north on the Chuckanut. I slowed down and eventually that person pulled over but, like you, I’m not too sure about the safety of riding a bicycle on that road!
We immigrants are sometimes so presumptuous. 🙂 Pretty much everything here in North America has already been named by the people who were here for hundreds of thousands of years before us.
My mom drove that road to work at the Bellingham Public Library for decades. In the winter, when the weather was bad, the Chuckanut was sometimes safer than the freeway because of its proximity to the bay’s marine air. The freeway, being on the other side of the mountains, could be much colder and icier.
Not too mention the difference in speed limits!!😏😊
One summer when we were there, they were doing roadwork on the Chuckanut Drive and we collected quite a number of rocks with plant fossils. Don’t know what they were, but they were definitely from another age!!
Fritzi, I knew your mom worked at the Anacortes library, but I didn’t know she drove the Chuckanut and worked in Bellingham. I bet she had stories to tell. Yes, being closer to saltwater usually means the air is warmer, so less snow and ice on the Chuckanut than on I-5. Was I-5 even here back when your mom was driving to Bellingham? Hmmm.
But wow, plant fossils in rocks. How cool is that? Do you still have any of them? Or your sisters? I’d love to see them. Just searched the internet for info and find a number of websites that talk about how difficult it is to find plant fossils along the Chuckanut because of how steep the up and down side walls are there.
We love your blog. We also love reading comments. In fact, I must admit that I sometimes wait for a few days after you’ve posted before I read the latest post so that I can read the comments. 🙂 I picked out several comments to this post in fact that I really like, but then I got somewhat serious about that and realized there was something in every comment that I liked.
I’m with Lori about her favorite photo. I could live there. My wife M says she could too, and that’s a good thing! 🙂
Thanks Ann, your work is very much appreciated.
M
🙂 I think I might do the same, M. Just wait for comments to be posted and then read them too. Great idea.
If you folks ever come up for a visit, let me know, we can drive the Chuckanut and look for a location for your new home. 🙂
I’ve lived in Washington almost all my life. I had no idea there were so many super things to see and do. Chuckanut Drive was great. Thank you.
Isn’t that the truth? I’ve seen so much of the waterways of Puget Sound, and it has taken YEARS to do that and see all of that. And yet the land in Washington State is much larger, takes up way more space than Puget Sound does. So yes, Paul, it has been a surprise to me too that there is so much to see and do on land. What a great life to be able to explore. 🙂 Glad you’re along for the ride.
Super! another destination on my list. And yes I’ll be staying either up in Bellingham with my trailer or down in Bay View with my trailer and then will “drive the Chuckanut” with just my pickup. 🙂
Excellent! Tell me when you’re coming … I’ll meet you there. 🙂
How can a road be built there?!?! Fascinating.
That road sure wouldn’t be built today! Too much cost and the environmental concerns. But I still wonder how/why it was built back in the early 1920’s. Wouldn’t building a road further inland be easier? I don’t find info about WHY the Chuckanut was built, just info about how it was built. Fascinating indeed. 🙂