Deception Pass State Park - Headlands / Rosario Head / Lighthouse Point — Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021

This is a nice system of trails.  I intended to do a triple loop on the Lighthouse Point trail, Lottie Point trail, and Rosario Head.  

The trail from the Bowman Bay parking lot to the Lighthouse Point tombolo had a blowdown that was rather brushy and required me and my kids to push branches out of the way.  Aside from that, the majority of the trails were in pretty good shape.

Looking at a Caltopo map, there is a trail on the north side of Lighthouse Point.  This trail is not shown on Google Maps.  I did the loop counter-clockwise to avoid hiking with the morning sun in my eyes.  It was rather difficult to find where the north-side trail split off from the Lighthouse Point Loop trail.  There were a couple of social trails in that direction, but none of them were a strong match for where my GPS said the trail would be.  I took one of them, and with some frequent route-finding I was eventually able to get onto the trail shown on my GPS.  Even after I was on the "trail", it was difficult to stay on it.  The northern trail was brushy, and there were also some recent minor blowdowns that obscured the trail.  There were also a couple of social trails that were equally poorly defined but made me constantly wonder if I had chosen the right trail.  Despite the challenge, it was fun.  I was surprised to find such a wilderness experience so close to civilization.  The trail was kind of like the trail to Mailbox Peak in places, except it constantly went up and down, was hard to follow, and there weren't any people.  A clockwise trip might have been easier, though a couple I met going that way had also experienced some issues finding the trail.

Eventually I made it around to the Lighthouse Point Loop trail and the going got much easier.  As the day progressed, the number of people on the trail picked up as well.  I was surprised how many people there were considering it was a week day.

Google Maps shows tidepools on the north side of the tombolo on the way to Rosario Head.  Low-tide was rapidly approaching at 2:30 (a +2.5' low), so I abandoned my plans of doing the Lottie Point Loop and instead went directly to Rosario Head.  At this tide level, I was able to walk from the Lighthouse Point tombolo back to the parking lot on the beach (this was not possible earlier in the morning with the higher tide).

The tide pools were ok.  There were a couple of anemones, but most of them were closed up.  They were interesting to see since I was already there, but I wouldn't make them the primary destination.  It was nice to see the sea grass and plants swaying gently in the waves.

Overall it was a great day.  I enjoyed sitting in the sun, listening to the waves and seeing bald eagles, dolphins, herons, seals, and some other birds.