Chuckanut Drive

On a Sunny weekend in June, we hopped out for a long drive on Chuckanut drive. It is one of the beautiful scenic drives in Washington state and is 19 miles long. Chuckanut Drive was the first scenic highway in Washington State and is carved out of the forest and Chuckanut sandstone cliffs. Every bend in the road, which is 200 feet above sea level provides amazing views of the bays, San Juan Islands and the mountains to the West.

Instead of taking I-5, take WA-11 and through colony road enter into Chuckanut drive. You will start seeing lush farms on both sides of colony road itself.

You will see oyster farming in the first 1-3 miles of chuckanut. There are shops and restaurant that sell and serve oyster. There is a lookout from where we saw oyster plantation. To see clearly, use binoculars.

There are two methods for oysters plantation which you can see in the picture below. Also, there is a board at the pullout where you can find interesting information about it.

Another pullout on the chuckanut drive made us sit there for a while and enjoy kiteboarding/kitesurfing going in the Samish Bay.

There is a rough steep trail going down to the samish bay which those kite surfers easily hiked down. We had a great time watching the surfers working on various stunts while surfing. Some of them flew up to 20 feets in the air and landed back to the water with surfboard. What an adrenaline rush even watching them fly, fall down, come up again!

Our next stop was Clayton Beach.

Cross the highway and venture down a staircase to the trail. Follow the trail until you reach the train tracks. At the train tracks if you cross straight across, this will take you to a different small beach. We spent time reading book at the beach under the sun and the waves roaring in the front.

If you cross the tracks and walk south(your left) for a short distance, you will find the main trail that continues to Clayton Beach. Please watch and listen for trains. This is a very active track.

The very next destination is Larabee State Park. They have picnic tables, camping options and a small beach, good for having fun in the water, see sunset.

Crossing Chuckanut village, our last stop was Fairhaven, a historic place. We walked around the town for antique shops, lil cute restaurants, some with live music. We had dinner at an Italian place Mambo Italiano.