Guemes Mountain & Valley - Skagit Land Trust

[48.54341466464298,-122.59589263128942]

Property Type: Trust-Owned
Date Added: 2009

Guemes Island
289 acres
Open to the Public, Featured Property
Bird & Wildlife Watching
Hiking & Walking

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Conservation Story

The Guemes Mountain & Valley Conservation Area was protected through an unprecedented partnership between Skagit Land Trust, San Juan Preservation Trust, and the residents of Guemes Island. Hundreds of donors contributed to protecting this jewel of the islands.

Guemes Mountain & Valley Conservation Area is part of broader effort of land conservation on Guemes Island and contributes to establishing a wildlife corridor with adjacent properties managed by the San Juan Island Preservation Trust and other land conservation agencies.

The protection of Guemes Mountain & Valley Conservation Area ensures that this scenic location is maintained in a natural state for the public to enjoy. Skagit Land Trust collaborated with Washington Trails Association to build a 1.2 mile long trail up the mountain in 2010-2011. The trail winds up through the forest and ends at the beautiful mountaintop with views of the surrounding San Juan islands. The trail has an elevation gain of 550 feet. Low impact day hiking is allowed, with dogs on leash and waste carried out. We do not allow biking, horseback riding, motorized vehicles, fires, or overnight camping. The habitat at the top of the mountain is fragile. Please stay on designated trails.

“Guemes Island has a long history of visionary landowners undertaking voluntary land conservation. These protected lands add so much value to the island’s heritage. No matter the changes to Guemes Island over the decades, this area will remain rural and natural, and serve as a sanctuary for people and wildlife.”

– Carolyn Gastellum, Guemes Island Land Steward

Site History and Ecology

The property plays an important role as a buffer to adjacent protected properties along the coastline, including a parcel acquired by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to protect perigrine falcon and bald eagle nesting habitat, as well as habitat for other seabirds that nest along the rocky ledges on the coast. The mountain prairie, woodland and wetland habitat of the Guemes Mountain & Valley Conservation Area complements the shoreline feeder bluff of the Kelly’s Point property, also managed by Skagit Land Trust on Guemes Island.

Guemes Mountain

At 688 feet, Guemes Mountain is the highest point on Guemes Island and features stunning views of the San Juan Islands, Mount Baker, the North Cascades mountains, and the Skagit delta. The mountain features five acres of a unique prairie habitat with a wide variety of wildflowers, including Camas lily, Fawn lily and Chocolate lily. This mountaintop prairie also serves as important nesting habitat for ground birds.

The bald top of Guemes Mountain is believed to have been treeless for many years, possibly through a combination of fire (either natural or human-led) and most recently due to logging. It is believed that the grassland area was once larger and maintained by pre-colonial Indigenous peoples of the Coast Salish tribes.

In the 1960s a portion of the conservation area was proposed as an aluminum smelter site. Many Islanders and groups across the region, state, and country successfully opposed the plan as a threat to clean water, clean air, and the rural nature of Guemes. Since then, Islanders, visitors, Trust members, and partners have continued to work to preserve elements of the Island that are important to the community, visitors, and wildlife. Skagit Land Trust is honored to be part of that work.

The forest lands of Guemes Mountain were logged most recently in the 1990s. Western red alder, willow and other early successional species have begun to revegetate the slopes of Guemes Mountain. Hikers today can find a mix of hardwood, softwood and shrub species including madrone, grand fir, western hemlock, bitter cherry, pacific yew, red flowering current and native rose. The section of trail that transitions from second growth softwoods (douglas-fir and western hemlock) to hardwood species is an excellent place for viewing woodpeckers.

Guemes Valley

The lowland portion of the Guemes Mountain & Valley Conservation Area provides habitat for a number of species including bald eagles, turkey vultures, swallows, warblers, finches, deer, coyotes, beaver, and amphibians. This portion of the property protects working farmland and more than 40 acres of critical wetland habitat connected to Cayou Creek.

Access

Pockets of wildflowers survive on thin soils of the mountain top. To protect this fragile habitat, Guemes Mountain is a day hiking site only. Camping, fires, motorized vehicles, bikes, and horses are not allowed.

Parking is available for four cars and a bike rack is at the trailhead. If you bike, bring your own lock. Do not park on the side of the road because parked cars will block the ability of Guemes fire trucks to pass. Since parking is limited we suggest leaving extra cars at the Guemes Ferry free parking lot or in Anacortes.

Local illustrator and cartographer Jocelyn Curry illustrated a map of the Guemes Mountain Trail.

How to Get There

Take WA-20 west to Anacortes. Continue on WA-20 Spur west. Turn right on Commercial Avenue. Turn left at 12th street. Turn right at I Avenue. Board the Guemes Island/Anacortes Ferry. From the Guemes Island Ferry terminal, turn right onto S. Shore Road (Southshore Road). Follow for 1.6 miles. Turn right on S. Shore Road follow for another 0.4 miles. Look for a gravel parking area on the right.