Day Four - Bay View State Park to Rockport, Washington

Day 4 

May 20th 

Wednesday

55 Miles

Mountain bound from Bayview State Park we rode to Rockport.  

Leaving Bayview we rode through more rolling hills of farms and dairies.  We saw horses, cows, goats, sheep, orchards, and beautiful pastures of green with yellow flowers in bloom. The livestock grazing in these fields look very happy.  In Sedro Woolley there were signs indicating the road we were to take, the South Skagit Highway would be closed starting TODAY.  Our alternative was SR 20 and heavy traffic so we took our chances and rode to the South Skagit Highway.  Once there, we did not see additional signage and a few cars were going both directions.  Cautiously we rode on hoping we would not be turned back.  This was another beautiful ride.  The road lined with a canopy of trees, wild raspberry bushes, wild flowers, and ferns, followed the Skagit river to the town of Concrete. 

Our plan was to camp at Concrete and use the library for wifi to upload pictures and update the blog. The town was not what we expected and the only campground there was associated with a motel that had been condemned so both were closed. We were left with two options, go back (downhill) five miles to a KOA or forward (uphill) 10 miles to Rockport.  We were tired but glad we chose to continue to Rockport.  The Howard Miller Steelhead County Park was fantastic!  Very clean, well maintained campground.  We had a perfect tent site by the river.  The Ranger there told us this park is a bird lovers paradise, in the fall 800 to 900 eagles migrate there.  We saw a variety of birds when we were there and enjoyed the very pretty, peaceful setting.  During the night we were surprised by very loud sirens.  Ronnie thought it was a signal for flash flooding, or the dam up river breaking.  We were up, out of the tent and headed up hill when a man (almost laughing) told Ronnie the fire station was a block away and they use the sirens to call out the volunteer firemen. We settled back in the tent without waking until we heard the birds singing with the sunrise.

Favorite sound of the day:

Water cascading down the mountains and hills to the Skagit river

Favorite smell for the day:

As we left Bayview, a farmer was freshly cutting a field of sweet smelling hay.

Rockport County Park

Ronnie's snack at Sedro Woolley

Skagit River

South Skagit Highway-scenic ride!