The Great Escape - Day 9: Fort Casey and Deception Pass

Martha and I rode Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig, to check out a couple of tourist sights in the nearby island of Whidbey

We boarded the car ferry at the Mukilteo Ferry Terminal, getting to board first as motorcycles are loaded first.  The trip over was uneventful, under heavily overcast skies and cool temperatures that would last through the ride.

Once on the island, we got on Highway 525, which eventually merges or becomes WA Hwy 20, heading north from the terminal town of Clinton and eventually reaching the Fort Casey State Park.

$10 for a Discovery Pass and we were free to tour the Coastal Artillery structures that remain for folks to wander through and around.

First though, we stopped at a scale model diorama showing one of the old fort's 10" guns.....

Just kidding, no models here....except for Martha of course.  Just playing with depth of field.

There are two 10 Inch guns still mounted and available for close examination.  Pretty heavy monsters aren't they.  The neat thing about these guns were that they "disappeared" after firing, hiding below the protective concrete walls while they were reloaded for the next shot at some enemy.

 In the firing position

 The business end of a 10 inch gun 

These had a range of about eight miles, good enough to

cover their areas of responsibility in Puget Sound.

 Gun in the retracted position so it can be reloaded/serviced

 Views of the rear of the concrete casements,

with the observation towers in view
more info on fire control here: LINK

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Here's captures of a couple of old photographs on display, showing Army crews servicing their respective guns.  They might be members of the 14th Coast Artillery which had responsibility for this area.

Here's a photo from the sister fort (three total to cover the area, known as The Triangle of Fire), Fort Worden, showing one of their 10" guns being fired:

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The remaining fort of the trio of forts was Fort Flagler.

The Triangle of Fire

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These particular guns and fort, never did fire a shot in anger though, and their viability as coastal defense weapons were soon proved obsolete before the end of World War II.

Part of the fort complex included a small lighthouse which we looked at but did not enter.

As we walked near the lighthouse, we heard and had previously seen what we thought was a Coast Guard helicopter near what appeared to be a formation of Coasties.

Turns out it was US Navy, perhaps Search and Rescue or some kind of training bird?

Leaving Fort Casey, it was some more riding to the northern end of Whidbey Island to Deception Pass:

The bridge spanning Deception Pass was pretty narrow so no way to pose Scarlett on the bridge, not with th elack of space and heavy traffic!  So we did a bit of walking around:

The shots we took of the scenery from the bridge didn't work out, there really wasn't much.  I think the draw is the high narrow bridge, which did induce a teeny bit of vertigo for me as we walked towards the middle of the bridge.

Yours truly at Deception Pass Brige

 Photo by Martha

We then retraced our route back towards the ferry terminal in Clinton to board the ferry back to Mukilteo.  Again, we were first since we were on a motorcycle:

Photo by Martha

A pretty good ride, a bit cool with temperatures in the low 60s but at least it didn't rain!  Typical Pacific Northwest weather I guess?