Sucia Island


Some wonderful friends decided we needed to see Sucia Island. It is one of the world’s top boating destinations, as is evidenced by the many visitors to the island.

Many visitors come by kayak. It is 2.5 miles north of Orcas Island. We took a fast boat and arrived in a few minutes.

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We disembarked at the public docks for Fossil Bay. From there, it is a brief walk to picnic tables, rest rooms and 10 miles’ worth of hiking trails.

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There are sandy beaches and rocky ones.

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Lots of herons, eagles, Canadian geese, and gulls.

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On the day we visited, we decided to go geocaching for hidden treasure at one end of the island. This is a view from the trail, looking back at one of the rocky beaches.

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There are a lot of very interesting rocks on Sucia. It is a part of the Chuckanut formation, which is different than the rocks that make up Orcas Island.  These are sedimentary rocks that include fossils of plants and animals. Fossil Bay, which is where these pictures are taken, was the site of the first dinosaur fossil find in Washington State in 2012. We didn’t take the time to look for dinosaurs, but we did note a number of small shells embedded in the rocks. We will have to return and do a bit more searching. We saw only a small fragment of the 500 plus acres that make up the island. There are many more trails to explore.

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This blob is a jellyfish that will apparently live and float again when the tide comes back in.

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A harbor seal smiles and winks at us. Note the purple sea star (Ochre Star) on the edge of the water.

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These are Steller sea lions. There are three in the water, just staying cool.

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Thank you, Dave and Sue, for the very enjoyable trip to Sucia Island.

Many more images on the Flickr album.