My friend & I hiked this trail along Rosario Beach in Deception Pass. It was beautiful! 

Quintessential PNW spring hiking day at Deception Pass State Park. Parked in the Bowman Bay beach lot and started the day in the direction of the Rosario Head trail. We were lucky enough to catch sight of Elsie May, the resident elephant seal, which really delighted my kids. On our way back to the parking lot, we saw a group of people on the beach who explained that they were volunteer scientists seining the water to evaluate the health of the shore after some restoration work. Apparently they were happy with their findings, and it was cute to see the baby Chum salmon. After a quick lunch and a play break on the park equipment, we headed to Lighthouse Point (which to my kids' confusion was lacking a lighthouse). Lots of beautiful coastline, and the hike back was full of banana slug sightings. We all had a good time and were happy to be back to the car before it started raining. 

My son was curious about the abandoned mine and cabin ruins off the Tursi Trail after I told him about running past it on a trail run so we went searching for the cave. We started at the Pass Lake loop to the Tursi Trail, which was lovely and shaded, although a bit muddy once pas the lake. Skunk cabbage is blooming as are fairy slippers and giant fawn lilies. The kids played with rolly poly bugs, aka potato bugs, aka wood louses, aka pill bugs while we ate lunch near the balds at the top of the trail there were also plenty of ladybugs to play with. The kids liked playing hide and seek behind some of the larger trees on the trail but were unimpressed by the old mining tunnel. After our walk we went to Rosario head and learned about Elsie May the elephant seal from a NOAA biologist and played on the beach. Finally we soaked our feet and played on the new play structure at Bowman Bay. The kids had a great time and my 7 year old was excited to learn the elephant seal was also 7.

Two part trip report because these hikes are on opposite sides of the park. First up, we stopped at the Upland Trail while we were at the main park this morning, what a cool trail! We did it twice. It’s only 1/4 mile but incredibly beautiful! Highly recommend adding it to your hikes in the park. The lichen and greenery from this area was just stunning. 

Next we went over to Bowman Bay and hiked to Rosario. The wildflowers are coming! We saw 12 varieties of flowers including common paintbrush and fairy slippers! Once we got to Rosario, we were planning to check out the tide pools but Elsie Mae, the elephant seal, was taking a nap on the beach! What an amazing animal to see in the wild. We’ve seen her a few times over the years. The beach is blocked off to give her space and there were volunteers there talking about her. It was pretty windy but the temperature wasn’t bad. 

⚠️ warning: there is stinging nettle, hemlock and cows parsnip along the trails. Be mindful if you step off the trail. 

Clocked a wonderful 16 miles with a friend today. It was astonishingly sunny and warm (considering). I was anticipating extremely cold temps and while it was really chilly in the shade and the beach had some windchill, in the sun it was lovely and warm. So it was clutch to have gloves and lots of layers, and soup for lunch.

Pass Lake loop was gorgeous with really steep sections of fall line trail and a handful of trees that required some clambering to get over.

The loops down by the water were lovely; the balds were gorgeous as always and the water was moving fast. Some steep brushy bits on Lottie Point but nothing terrible.

The bridge had some repairs going, which were cool to look at as we walked by. The trail going down to the beach was nice and wide, and we walked down the beach for a while before cutting up to the trail itself via some side trails to access the beach trail before cutting across the point to West Beach. No issues to report here except some short mucky sections.

I was surprised by all the infrastructure near the North and West beaches. Really nice looking ampitheatre, picnic tables all over, and very nice (open) bathrooms at West Beach!

We had lunch on the beach after seeing an otter running into the water!! Then I got a chance to fly my hiking kite for a bit before putting it away and heading up to Goose Rock the back way. Steep steep steep up.

We enjoyed a nice view from the Rock and then headed back towards the cars. It was steep down to go around the lower forest Loop and Goose Perimeter Trail. All clear, then onto the bridge to the Pass Lake Lot.

I really like that PNT section between the bridge and Pass Lake parking lot. My knees were screaming on the downhill towards the end but the woods were lovely.

Photo 1 - Enjoying the view from Goose Rock late in the day
Photo 2 - hiking kiting
Photo 3 - Early morning visit to former WTA worksite, rock wall still looks good 10 years on