Here's how I got to Deception Pass

From Quadra Island, I took the ferry back to Campbell River and drove south to the Living Forest campground outside of Nanaimo. I stayed there for a couple of nights, but it was pretty cold, so I decided to head south. I discovered that I could take an early morning BC ferry from Crofton, about 25 miles south, to Vesuvius on Saltspring Island. I explored the island for most of the day and then took another BC ferry in the late afternoon from Fulford Harbour to Swartz Bay at the northern tip of the peninsula that extends north from Victoria. I didn’t like Saltspring nearly as well as Quadra Island.

At Swartz Bay, I spent the night at McDonald Park, then drove a few miles south to Sidney, BC, where I caught the Washington State ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island and connected to another WA State ferry to Orcas Island, where I camped at Moran State Park. I chose Orcas Island over San Juan because there’s no public campground on San Juan, but I think I would have liked San Juan better; what I saw of Friday Harbor during the hour wait for the ferry connection was nice (including a small group of peace demonstrators), and more desirable still, while in line for the ferry out of Orca, I met a couple who told me that there’s a place on San Juan Island that overlooks a strait where they saw lots of orcas.

From Orca Island, I took another WA ferry to Anacortes, and then drove to Deception Pass State Park.

Most of the campgrounds I stayed in on Vancouver and the other islands were set in deep forest. (The exeptions were Cluxewe [which, by the way, is pronouned like “cluck seaweed” without the “d”] and Heriot Bay. As the weather moved into fall, it was getting colder and darker, so I decided to go south to the Columbia River gorge.