Oyster Dome — Saturday, Mar. 24, 2001

Puget Sound and Islands > Bellingham Area

With the Cascades looking wet and cloudy, my friends Lee and Shelley, and I headed up north to Skagit County and the southern end of the Chuckanuts. We headed up the PNT to the view point up at the Oyster Dome. The trail switch backs up though second growth timber for a mile, then goes into an old DNR clear cut area that is growing back up with small conifers. Here you get your first views out over the water to Mt. Erie and the San Juan Islands. Once into the trees, the trail gets muddy and steep in places. At 3.5 miles you come to an old logging railroad grade, then it is only a half mile further to the Oyster Dome and some great views. This area was originally logged between 1912 to 1928 by the Samish Bay Logging Co. who had a sawmill at Blanchard on the bay. With the wind blowing cold at the Oyster Dome, we had a quick bite to eat and then headed down. A little over a mile back we took a side trail to the Bat Caves which gives you a view of the face of the Oyster Dome from below. There are a lot of large stone blocks piled up and making some caves. There is a warning sign telling of all the bad things insides the caves. Rock climbers can do some crack climbing up the Oyster Dome on different routes. We lucked out with the weather, as it didn't start raining until we got back down to the car, as other were still going up. And some of them did not have any rain gear. We did see two Eagles flying around and making lots of noise. The hike is describe in the book ""Winterhikes in Puget Sound & the Olympic Foothills"". 3-25.