October, 2017
A quick peek becomes a longer linger.
After my walk around foggy Cranberry Lake this morning, I trekked back to my campsite and jumped into my truck for a very short drive.
The majority of impressively huge Deception Pass State Park, which includes a number of campgrounds, is on the west side of Highway 20. But the Park also has one campground on the east side of the highway, Quarry Pond Campground. I wanted to check it out for future camping possibilities.
I figured I would drive through that campground, snap a few photos, and zoom out of there all in about 5 minutes. Ha! Once I saw the pond that the campground is named after and saw how pretty it was, I ended up staying there over two hours.
Unlike the other State Park campgrounds that are on the west side of the highway, this one (on the east side of the highway) is open all year, although water is turned off during winter months. There are about 61 camp sites, flush toilets, shower facilities, and a group kitchen shelter and gazebo.
Most of the campsites here were fairly close to each other, many with no vegetation between them for even a modicum of privacy. But a few of the campsites were nicely separated. A very few of the campsites overlooked the quarry pond, but those campsites were restricted to tent camping only.
The Quarry Pond is about one acre in size. Between the years 1910 and 1914, a prison rock quarry was operated here. Some 40 prisoners from Walla Walla State Penitentiary who were members of an honors program at that facility worked here (including some who had been convicted of murder). Guards stood watch at the quarry as the prisoners cut the rock into gravel and loaded it onto barges located at the base of one of the cliffs near Deception Pass. The quarried rock was then taken by barge to Seattle. The camp was dismantled in 1924 and the quarry was abandoned. A privately-owned campground was subsequently created here. It’s that campground that was eventually purchased by Washington State Parks and turned into the Quarry Pond Campground.
I didn’t take any photos in the campground, but I found the quarry pond fascinating.
A lone Hooded Merganser paddled around the pond for 30 minutes or so before heading into the underbrush along the edge of the pond. I simply sat on that little bench in the photos above (and in the photo below) and thoroughly enjoyed the view.
This was another one of those delightful surprises. Slow down, stop and look and listen, not just at railroad crossings, but everywhere! 🙂
Gorgeous pictures of the pond!
Thank you. 🙂