The mountains of the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island act as a barrier, wringing the moisture out of the wet marine air and leaving the San Juans in a rain shadow. The 20" to 30" of rain that does fall here each year is enough moisture for Douglas fir and madrone trees to grow like the ones in this photograph. The complex and lush ground covers of Pacific Northwest forests are excluded from growing on these parched hillsides. This explains the dry grass in the photo that covers the peninsula and the surrounding hillsides. This dry refuge helps explain the popularity of the islands for those that come here to kayak, bicycle, and hike.
Wildlife abounds here as well. We watched Dall's and harbor porpoises for an hour this morning, harbor seals and an elephant seal just before our stop at Friday Harbor and then observed a minke whale in the late afternoon. We found brilliant red bills on oystercatchers and striking patterns on the wings of Bonaparte's gulls between the times we searched for mammals.
