I headed up north for the promise of sunshine and hiked from the Pass Lake TH, staying north of the bridge which is undergoing a painting project. First, let me backtrack to Pass Lake - the lake has a toxic algae bloom (see photo) and is toxic to dogs, too. People were fishing because the sign indicates that cleaning the fish really well is sufficient.

I headed south on the trail that parallels Hwy 20 and basically hiked every trail near Lottie Point and Bowman Bay. There isn't a lot of gain on these trails, but there are plenty rocks and wet roots to necessitate focus on foot placement. Nearly everyone I encountered had a mask or gave distance. Oh, and the sunshine never materialized, but there were thunderheads to the west. It's a great place to stretch the legs while the foothills are filling up with white.

 My first hike since May 11 when I broke my foot. Have been recovering and I am sure glad to get out and hike. Taking it easy for now so I went to my favorite state park in Washington State. You are rarely alone on the trail but the view point in my video is only known by the locals so you can usually get this place to yourself with fantastic views of Deception Pass Bridge.      Checkout my video of this hike from the link below or checkout over 300 other hikes I have done on my VIMEO Channel in Washington State at https://vimeo.com/mikemorrison

As always get out and see this beautiful state and enjoy your hiking!

Take Care,

Mike

I don't think there is a prettier hike.  Highly recommend parking at Rosario Head, walking along Bowman Bay and on to Deception Pass.  Be sure to bring the Discovery Pass for parking.  Due to erosion, there is quite a lot of uneven ground on the trail--I wear boots.  In Spring it's a bit slick with mud; in August and September a bit slippery from the fine, powdery soil and fallen madrona leaves on the trail.  Appreciated the work of Deception Pass volunteers clipping back overgrown salal from the trail today beyond Lighthouse Point.  Saw a family of otters, harbor seals, heron, chipmunk, red squirrel today.  Wonderful scents from the beaches and licorishy marsh.  For those sensitive to sound, the semi trucks climbing to Deception Pass Bridge, and naval war planes, detract from the splendor.

Let me start this post with a warning I found on AllTrails after it was too late.

WARNING: DO NOT HIKE THE NORTHERN SECTION OF THE LIGHTHOUSE POINT TRAIL. IT IS DANGEROUS AND NOT MAINTAINED BY THE PARKS DEPARTMENT.

Normally when we plan to hike we look into trip reports ahead of time. Since we were camping at Deception Pass and had a copy of the map we didn't do that kind of research for such a quick, well populated day hike. We hiked the Lottie Bay loop which was beautiful. There's one large tree down that we did have to pick up and pass our small dog over as well as a minor boulder scramble we had to then pass her up. Otherwise the trail is well maintained with some stunning views. 

We then followed up by walking across the beach to do the Lighthouse Point loop. Overall the trail is pretty easy to follow. We knew we wanted to stick to the left and just do the perimeter all the way around so we were planning on skipping, what the map shows as, the middle section. When we started in on the Northern side things seemed fine, if nothing just a bit more narrow than the other trail but soon, rocky and rooted and eventually a sheer drop to water. Needless to say we turned around and went back eventually coming across what we referred to as the oops trail, a very narrow mostly overgrown trail that cuts from the North to what we thought was the middle trail. 

A gorgeous summer day for a hike! We headed out from the trailhead early in hopes of having the trail to ourselves. No such luck, as this loop is extremely popular, but it was relatively quiet and most people wore masks. We did end up getting a little lost, as did other parties that we came across. The trail could use some additional signage at turns. Back on the beach after our hike, we had the absolute pleasure of seeing a family of otters playing! What a treat!!