Friday, August 19th and John and I headed out to Deception
Pass State Park. Deception Pass is a strait separating Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island, in the northwest part of the U.S. state of Washington. It connects Skagit Bay, part of Puget Sound, with the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Deception Pass area has been home to var
ious Coast Salish tribes for thousands of years. The first Europeans to see Deception Pass were members of the 1790 expedition of Manuel Quimper on the Princess Real.
The Spanish gave it the name "Boca de Flon". A group of sailors led by Joseph Whidbey, part of the Vancouver Expedition, found and mapped Deception Pass on June 7, 1792. George Vancouver gave it the name "Deception" because it had misled him into thinking Whidbey Island was a peninsula. The "deception" was heightened due to Whidbey's failure to find the strait at first. In May 1792, Vancouver was anchored near yhe southern end of Whidbey Island. He sent Joseph Whidbey to explore the waters east of Whidbey Island, now known as Saratoga Passage, using small 
boats. Whidbey reached the northern end of Saratoga Passage and explored eastward into Skagit Bay, which is shallow and difficult to navigate. He returned south to rejoin Vancouver without having found Deception Pass. It appeared that Skagit Bay was a dead-end and that Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island were a long peninsula attached to the mainland. In June the expedition sailed north along the west coast of Whidbey Island. Vancouver sent Joseph Whidbey to explore inlets leading to the east. The first inlet turned out to be a "very narrow and intricate channel, which...abounded with rocks above and beneath the surface of the water". This channel led to Skagit Bay, thus separating Whidbey Island from the mainland. Vancouver apparently felt he and Joseph had been deceived by the tricky strait. Vancouver wrote of Whidbey's efforts: "This determined [the shore they had been exploring] to be an island, which, in consequence of Mr. Whidbey's circumnavigation, I distinguished by the name of Whidbey's Island: and this northern pass, leading into [Skagit Bay], Deception Passage". Deception Pass is a dramatic seascape where the tidal flow and whirlpools beneath the twin bridges connecting Fidalgo Island to Whidbey Island move quickly. During low tides, the swift current can lead to standing waves, large whirlpools, and roiling eddies. This swift current can be viewed from the twin bridges' pedestrian walkways or from the trail leading below the larger south bridge from the parking lot on the Whidbey Island side.
Deception Pass is today surrounded by Deception Pass State Park, the most-visited parkin Washington with over 2 million visitors each year. The park was officially established in 1923, when the original 1600 acres of a military reserve was transferred to Washington State Parks.
The bridge span is 976 feet long, height from water to roadway is approximately 180 feet (depending on the tide). Until the completion of the bridge on July 31, 1935, travellers and businessmen would use an inter-island ferry to commute between Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands.
When we arrived there was fog rolling in and under the bridge. What a beautiful sight!
That is all for today,
Candy and Johnny
