Saturday, September 17, 2005
Lime Kiln State Park, San Juan Island
While not really a hike (we did walk to the viewpoint and light house), this visit is more than worthy of a blog entry. On our drive to the park we saw many cars stopped on the side of the road and a number of whale-watching boats a good distance off-shore. At the park we pulled out my trusty binoculars and could see many orcas in the distance. Then all of a sudden they made a beeline for the viewpoint, passing within a 100 yards of shore. There were at least 15 whales, which were close enough to hear them breath when they surfaced. They swam to the north along shore and seemed to frolic for a while north of the park. During this time we hiked towards the lighthouse and saw that they were returning, even closer to shore this time! At one point, there was a line of 8 or 10 whales swimming right next to each other! Of course, I left my camera in the car, but fortunately my sister had hers. Spectacular!
