Deception Pass

The 2015 trip has begun! This year we will begin with a stay on San Juan Island, Washington and then travel the Rocky Mountain range from Jasper, Canada to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our journey began narrowly escaping the wrath of Tropical Bill on a flight into Seattle, an overnight stay in Seattle and then a ferry ride from Seattle to San Juan Island’s Friday Harbor. The ferry travels along the coast of Washington and through Deception Pass.

Deception Pass received its name from Captain George Vancouver, the first European to identify the area near Whidbey Island as a passage, which he named Deception Pass. The Captain thought the island was a peninsula. Tidal flow can be extremely rough and low tides create standing waves, huge whirlpools and roiling eddies. With the small islands between Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands, the passage appeared to many early explorers to be sides of a small bay or perhaps the mouth of a river.  It was Vancouver's chief navigator Joseph Whidbey who sailed into the pass and followed the water south into the Saratoga Passage, disproving the bay theory. Vancouver named that island Whidbey in honor of his assistant, Joseph Whidbey, who was at his side when Vancouver realized the mistake. The captain named the inlet at which he was anchored Deception Pass to commemorate the error.

 

Next stop…San Juan Island, Washington!