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Some trips are good, others are better and exceed expectations. This trip falls into the latter category. Plans for this trip started forming with the thought that now that I have a van, it is easier to get away and I should just do it. I should try winter camping. Logic told me to stay close to the salt water where it is warmer and go when it is sunny. Hum. The day after Thanksgiving started a sunny streak of weather and Fidalgo Island (City of Anacortes, Washington area) had some ophiolite rocks I’d read about. Off I went.

Photo of seagulls. I don’t know if the rock was an ophiolite.

I spent a few days having a delightful time wandering around Washington Park, Deception Pass State Park, and parts between. The photos below are from that area.

And in my wanderings, I came across this curious looking duck. Cornell’s Merlin app identified the duck as a Muscovy. From my searching around the internet, I’m guessing that it was a domestic duck that has escaped.

Then I headed off to Larrabee State Park via Edison. In the area around Edison I saw numerous photographers with large zoom lenses. Curious to find out what they were shooting, I stopped and chatted with a friendly photographer. He was there to try to get pictures of the Short-eared Owl, an owl the hunts during the day. And if he was really lucky, he might see a harrier try to steal food from an owl. I would have loved to go for a walk and hope to see the aerial battle between an owl and harrier, but it was also hunting season and my dog is extremely afraid of the sound from guns, so we left. But we might go back when hunting season ends.

And the ophiolites? They were visually underwhelming as I had anticipated. But I had to see them. Ophiolites are rather rare and all books and websites about Washington State geology include a mention of them.

https://wa100.dnr.wa.gov/puget-lowland/deception-pass

https://nwgeology.wordpress.com/the-fieldtrips/fidalgo-ophiolite-part-1-a-bit-of-the-mantle-at-washington-park-anacortes/

Facts