Camping Closer to Home

Joe Meche is president of the North Cascades Audubon Society and also serves the chapter as newsletter editor and birding programs coordinator. He has been watching birds for over 50 years and photographing birds and landscapes for more than 30 years.

If you look at any topographic map of Whatcom County, you just might see what I saw almost 32 years ago during my last cold winter at 7,000 feet in Colorado. Through many long nights as cold as 35 below, I pored over numerous maps and guidebooks and discovered a wealth of glacier-clad mountains relatively close to a marine environment — and I discovered Bellingham.

From saltwater and downtown Bellingham, Mt. Baker is just 30 miles to the east, as the raven flies. We live in a virtual wonderland of sights and sounds that many people in other parts of the country can only dream about. The ample opportunities that we have for year-round bird watching and other forms of recreation are unlimited. But more often than not, the long road beckons.

In this household, we’ve always been ready for a good road trip, especially one with a few wildlife refuges and birding hotspots to connect the dots along the way. In fact, we usually planned our annual spring and fall excursions well in advance to coincide with the seasonal movements of birds. Lately, however, gasoline prices have become obscene, for lack of a better word. And knowing the psychology of price gouging, the prices might go down again but they’ll still be higher than they ever were. This gross unpleasantness has caused us to rethink our old routine and consider staying closer to home.

With this in mind, Cindy and I have begun to explore a few campgrounds within a 50-mile radius of home. We’ve even enlisted three of our grandkids to assist us in our fact-finding project. While we all might prefer a wilderness campsite without neighbors and lots of birds right outside the tent flaps, the reality is that many folks are also feeling the pinch at the pump, so we fully expect a little competition. I realize that strapping on the old backpack would address the privacy issue to some degree, but we’ve chosen to focus on drive-in campgrounds.

The idea came to us on two separate overnight trips to Bayview State Park — just 23 miles from Bellingham. First, we took our oldest granddaughter along and we also took our bikes. This was a new campground for us and a bit of an eye-opener into the world of close camping. The drive took no time at all and provided us with a great base for exploring a portion of Padilla Bay, on foot and on two wheels.

At the campground after breakfast, we mounted our bikes and rode through the quiet streets of Bayview to the Padilla Bay Shore Trail. This two and a half-mile trail follows the southeastern edge of Padilla Bay along Indian Slough and has potential for good numbers of shorebirds, ducks and raptors during spring, fall and winter. Early morning presented a campground filled with birdsong and an easy walk took us to the Breazeale Interpretive Center to learn more about the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.

On our second trip to this state park, we took two of our grandsons and found that we were again surrounded by good birds, both in the campground and along the shoreline of Padilla Bay. With a first cup of coffee in hand, I ambled throughout the sleeping campground and enjoyed a number of fledgling Swainson’s thrushes and early barn swallows. Later in the day and down by the water, my oldest grandson was interested in comparing the ring-billed gulls to the occasional Caspian terns that flew by just offshore. The gulls were easy studies since they were typically curious about sharing our picnic lunches.

Up the road from Bayview, Larrabee State Park is even closer to home — seven miles — and opens a variety of possibilities for birding in a number of diverse habitats. Saltwater is accessible by foot all the way to Clayton Beach to the south and up into the Chuckanuts. The trailhead to the scenic viewpoint and to Fragrance Lake is just across the road from the campground. The ongoing efforts of dedicated local birders like George Heleker have awakened a lot of people to the birding potential of this area. According to George, the Clayton Beach parking lot is a local birding hotspot in spring.

Just northwest of Bellingham is Birch Bay State Park and, like Larrabee, this park offers marine and forested upland habitats. An added attraction here is the riparian corridor of Terrell Creek, which meanders through the park and has provided more than its share of good bird sightings over the years. From the campground, you can cover the entire area quite well on foot. Historically, Birch Bay has hosted large numbers of wintering seabirds and waterfowl, coincidental to the annual herring spawn. Pacific black brant, scoters and harlequin ducks are among the species that can be found foraging offshore and along the rocky shoreline.

When you’ve had your fill of marine air, you can leave the saltwater behind and drive east on the Mt. Baker Highway from Bellingham. Mountains have a special appeal and the North Cascades offer an entirely different world of possibilities for higher elevation birds and spectacular scenery. Within the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest are numerous campgrounds to set up your base camp. Two particular U.S. Forest Service campgrounds offer more accessibility for car campers and each is unique.

Douglas Fir Campground is just up the road from the community of Glacier and provides some of the county’s best river music with the always generous flow of the Nooksack River’s North Fork. In the past, I’ve biked all the way to Douglas Fir from Bellingham — and back — but it’s much easier now to drive the 36 miles, with extra gear to ensure a more comfortable visit.

With this campground as your base, numerous logging roads and trails take you into the Canyon Creek area and a variety of higher elevation habitats on the north side of Church Mountain and along the alpine meadows of Excelsior Ridge. Above timberline, the chances of seeing mountain species like grouse, ptarmigan and rosy finches will add to the incredible views of Mt. Baker’s glaciers just across the valley to the south.

A bit farther up the road, Silver Fir Campground offers one of the best opportunities for wide-ranging day trips up the North Fork of the Nooksack River and Anderson Creek. From this perfect staging area, you can pack a lunch and head up Forest Road 32 toward Hannegan Pass, or take Forest Road 3065 to Twin Lakes and the spectacular lookout on Winchester Mountain. The Anderson Creek road eventually turns into a trail that will take you to the Galena Chain Lakes, just below the Mt. Baker Ski Area.

An added treat to this list must include the Whatcom County Park at Silver Lake. This park has a great campground and even a few rustic cabins right on the lake. This has been a traditional getaway for quiet New Year’s Eve celebrations and a few trips when the nesting ospreys return in the spring. This is a great area for early morning walks to observe forest species and good numbers of diving ducks.

So, don’t be discouraged about gas prices while the politicians bicker over our future. Just try to use less of the product and take a closer look into our vast backyard with its spectacular scenery and healthy bird populations. Visit the Washington State Parks and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest Web sites for more information about camping in the area. And remember, to fully enjoy your stay at any of these sites, lock up the gas guzzler until you’re ready to return home. Hike and bike and you’ll see and hear more than you ever will in your vehicle.

Enjoy. §

Beaks and Bills will take you on a round-trip cruise through the San Juan Islands to Victoria, British Columbia. We’ll be on watch for seabirds and pods of orcas, so stay tuned.