October 2019
Orcas Island,
Salish Sea
An October family gathering at Deer Harbor on Orcas Island was met with three days of rain and about a half an hour of glorious sun on Saturday. For the most part, the heavy cloud cover muted the usually brighter fall colors but they were great anyway.
Getting to Orcas Island is always a pleasant trip. The ferry leaves from Anacortes and stops as Lopez and Shaw Islands before depositing us on Orcas. The ride is about one hour total.
Although most of the color was the Big Leaf Maples, I was particularly attracted to the Madrone/Madrona (Arbutus menziesii) as they were shedding their red bark and exposing their yellow for the winter. Also they appeared to having a bumper crop of red berries this year.
The sun appeared briefly just before it went down and I grabbed by camera and took off to catch some of it on the trees. I was richly rewarded with the following series of photos taken along a path that overlooks Deer Harbor from a bluff above.
As I noted above, most of the time there was cloudy and wet. But this makes for some interest as well. I think it shows the tree structure better against the grey sky.
I did say there were seals.
Lastly are a few photos of the ferry ride home including a scene from Ocean Diver’s island — Lopez.
So thanks for coming along on my little tour of the San Juan Islands on a wet October weekend. It was a good trip and we enjoyed the short excursion and the few minutes of sunlight.
What Fall colors have you been seeing so far? Share some with us.