Winter Camping at Deception Pass, Day One

Winter in western Washington is a tough time for outdoor photography. Rain and drizzle can last for weeks at a time. Even when it's not raining it tends to be overcast, producing low, gloomy light that is less than inspiring. So when I saw that the first week of January would have a spell of clear days I decided to take full advantage of it. I was overdue for a camping trip, so I looked at my options. Seattle is surrounded by some of the best hiking and camping areas in the country, but as I don't have a car right now most of that incredible menu was not available. 

Nonetheless, with a little online research I was pleased to discover that I could get to Deception Pass State Park by public transportation. It would take five buses and a ferry, but it was doable and I was excited. Nineteen years ago when I was new to Seattle and Washington Deception Pass was one of my first hiking destinations. The pass itself is a narrow, but navigable, passage between the Pacific Ocean waters of the Strait of Juan De Fuca and Puget Sound. The park includes old-growth forests and rocky shorelines at the northern tip of Whidbey Island and the southern tip of Fidalgo Island. 

Pacific Madrona and Conifers by Cranberry Lake
This broad-leaf evergreen tree is a favorite of mine for its smooth, peeling bark. It is also loved by American robins, varied thrushes, northern flickers and other birds for its small red fruits.

I booked a camp site for two nights and set my alarm for two hours before sunrise. I wanted to have a few hours of the short winter day left when I got there. After the five-hour trip I arrived at about noon. I found my camp site in the cold shade of tall conifers and put up my tent as quickly as I could. The daylight was already more than half over. I had seen on the map that Cranberry Lake was nearby. I had never seen that part of the park so I headed that way. Ten minutes later I approached the lake shore through old-growth Douglas firs.

This is a wild lake, although it's just a couple hundred feet from Route 20, which bisects the park. It was so refreshing to see the undeveloped shoreline studded with stunted, wind-gnarled trees. Still, a simple fishing dock in full sunlight was a welcome sight. I sat down on the dock, put my long lens on my camera and surveyed the area for birds. The lake was frozen from the shore to well past the dock. Over a hundred feet away was an unfrozen area where I could see a group of mergansers, hooded and common. I wanted to photograph them, especially the hooded mergansers because I don't have any good pictures of them, but they were too far away. 

While waiting in vain for birds to come within photographing range this detail on the lake caught my eye. The low angle of the winter sun brought these dead reeds to life with golden light. And the contrasting colors of the cobalt sky and dark, shaded conifers reflected through the ice brought them into sharp relief.  

Clear winter weather here is generally colder than average. Without the usual blanket of low clouds the mild winter conditions in the Puget Sound lowlands sometimes give way to freezing temperatures. This was one of those times. In fact we were a couple days into a record cold spell at this point. Although I was in full sun, sitting still was a chilly affair. At the opposite, northwest, end of the lake I saw two very large, white birds. Even though I couldn't get a very good look at them from that distance they could only be trumpeter swans. Cranberry Lake has good southern exposure, so I decided to explore the sunny northern shore and see if I could get a better look at the swans.

After a short walk on a forest trail I discovered that there is a road off the northern shore. It is a park road though, and on a cold January day there is very little traffic. I walked west along the road, scanning the lake, ground and trees for wildlife. But aside from ducks that were too far away to photograph there wasn't a critter in sight. As I continued towards the area where the trumpeter swans had been I peered at the lake through little alders. I had to do a quick double take to confirm that there was a river otter sunning itself behind the trees.

After doing what I could to get a picture of the otter I continued west. The unfrozen part of the lake where I had spotted the trumpeter swans earlier was empty now. I could see that top of the lake wrapped around a thinly-treed rocky outcropping. A narrow trail meandered a short way through the trees. Following it revealed the shaded, fully-frozen tip of the lake. Out on the ice were the two trumpeter swans. They were maybe two hundred feet away, but approaching very slowly so as to not alarm them I managed to make the distance closer to one hundred feet. That's definitely further than I would prefer, but they're quite large so they actually filled up a decent amount of the frame. If I could just manage to get a sharp image without a tripod at this distance a little cropping could make the photo work. 

A river otter catches some rays by Cranberry Lake. Positioning myself so that I could see it's face through the trees was the best I could do under the circumstances. Not much of a shot, but it's better than none at all. It's always a pleasure to see an otter.

"Didn't we fly south to find lakes that AREN'T frozen?" Trumpeter swans on Cranberry Lake.

After photographing the swans I found a sunny spot on the shore to watch for birds. This bald eagle was also scanning the water, but not a fish, duck, gull or coot presented itself to be eaten. Before long we both gave up and moved on. 

This red-tailed hawk circled over the lakeside forest briefly. They seem small when you've been watching eagles. This picture is nothing special, but I like the way the red tail feathers are illuminated.

Walking towards the marshy northeast edge of the lake I could see mergansers again. They were less than a hundred feet from the shore, but were back-lit by the bright sunshine reflecting off of the lake. This meant that to get a decent exposure of the birds I would have to blow out the highlights in the background. The "high-key" images produced that way can look cool though, so I set my camera accordingly. That eagle must have made it's way towards them too though because suddenly the sound of dozens of duck wings hitting the water shattered the silence. Most of them were flying away but a couple female common mergansers flew roughly towards me. They were on a course to pass me at about fifty feet away. I held down the shutter button as they made their pass and managed a couple shots before they flew out of range.  

Common merganser females fly over frozen Cranberry Lake.

After slowly making it to the other side of the marsh I was watching chestnut-backed chickadees up in the trees when more splashing turned my head towards the water. A couple hundred feet out I spotted the commotion. This eagle rose up from the water's surface with empty talons as several ducks scattered across the lake. Having already outed itself the eagle flew to the top of the nearest tall tree, probably hoping that some other ducks would come along before dark and not notice it up there.

With an hour of daylight left I needed to make my way back to camp and build a fire before it got dark. Along the way my old friend the song sparrow perched in the golden light, with salal leaves glowing in the background.

I barely got four hours of shooting in on my first day due to my late arrival. I wasn't sure if I had even gotten any good photographs, but it was a lovely afternoon and I was looking forward to a full day of hiking and shooting. I have to admit that I wasn't looking froward to the 24 degree night in my tent before that, but I was definitely glad to be at Deception Pass.

Thanks for reading. I've got two more posts about this trip on the way, and they'll both include some images I'm excited to share with you. There are links at the top of this page to my portfolio, and to my Facebook and Instagram pages.