And now, for something completely different! By my count, 23 of Washington’s state parks are accessible only by water. No problem! Have kayak; will paddle! The first of them, Hope Island, is located a few miles east of Shelton in Puget Sound. My daughter and I set out on a mostly sunny afternoon to explore the waters and the island.
We set out from the landing at Arcadia a few minutes after a rainstorm had passed. Mother Nature treated us to a rainbow and some fun cloudscapes on the way.
For much of the 20th century, the island was a private family retreat and orchard. The state acquired the property in 1990 and has preserved the grounds nicely. We explored for most of an hour.
I had hoped to hike a circle around the full island, but we noticed another rainstorm approaching and decided it best to cut short our exploration. This last picture shows what we were facing …
About the parenthesis on the title: There is another state park named Hope Island that I will be exploring later. The other one is in the north side of Puget Sound between Deception Pass and La Conner. (Update: I’ve now been to that one, too!)
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