They ask you to be in line at the ferry dock 30-45 minutes before departure to maintain your reservation. It's a solid 30-minute drive from the campground and we have to dump and rinse our waste tanks, plus fill with fresh water (30-minutes max) which is how we arrived at the 6:45AM departure. We of course were on the road by 6:30AM.
TRAVEL DAY PHOTOS
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Orcas Island is a very busy stop on the Washington State Ferry routes.
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These little sailboats will need to keep an eye out for the 18MPH ferry ships.
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We had a little bit more breathing room onboard this ship.
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Soon our ferry ride was over and we were back on the mainland roads to our next destination.
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This wonderfully detailed carving was outside of the Forest Service Information Station.
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We backed into our spacious 50' deep campsite here at Horseshoe Cove Campground.
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There were no lakefront sites left, but we can see it out our back windows.
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It's only for 3-nights, but again no sun, cellphone or satellite service here.
We were supposed to be spending tonight in our 45th National Park, but two weeks ago on the 16th we received an email informing us that our reservation was cancelled because the campground was being closed. No explanation was given, just here's your money back and have a nice day.
The campground was going to be reopened for the Fourth of July Weekend, but that's after our reservation ended.
I did a little research and found out the reason for the closure was a very aggressive mama bear and her two cubs have been spending a lot of time in the campground.
This doesn't mean we won't get to visit the National Park, it's just that our 11-day visit will be cut short to 8-days. Trying to find available campsites inside a National Park with just a 2-week notice was impossible, so we ended up just 40-miles outside of the park in a National Forest campground at the foot of the 10,781' tall Mount Baker.
So Tricia took off on a short hike this morning along the shoreline of 9-mile long Baker Lake to the Bayview Campground right next door.
MORNING WALK PHOTOS
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The trail between the two campgrounds doesn't exactly follow the shoreline, but close.
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Now there's a bench with a view.
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Licorice slugs were everywhere along the trail.
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Fireweed could also be found all along the trail.
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All right, I looked it up myself. The Northern Red Belt it is not a culinary mushroom,due to its hard, woody texture and highly bitter taste.
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Banana Slugs were also present along the trail, but outnumbered by the Licorice Slugs.
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This bridge means she's almost back to THE POD.
After lunch we headed out to do a little sightseeing and to check out the other six half-priced National Forest Service Campgrounds located within 10-miles of our current campground, just in case we have a future visit to this area.
SIGHTSEEING AROUND BAKER LAKE
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On the way in to the campground Monday we saw this sign and decided to check it out today.
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There is a short .5-mile boardwalk/asphalt/gravel trail with numerous info boards.
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The Salmonberry here were just beginning to ripen.
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At the halway point there were some nice benches, always welcomed when out on a hike.
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These identified as Red Huckleberry.
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There was an info board here describing how lightening took off the tops of these trees.
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There were numerous Wild Blueberry plants along the trail.
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Red Berried Elder is poisonous if eaten raw, but are said to be safe to eat when cooked.
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We are off the trail now and down by one of the two dams at the bottom of Baker Lake.
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That low cloud cover is making it impossible to get a view of Mount Baker.
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The second, bigger dam, on Baker Lake allows you to drive across it.
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Up north from our campground in the aptly named Boulder Creek.
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One of the six campgrounds is found near this creek.
How about our State by State Bucket Lists or Visited Campgrounds List?
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