Exploring: Tulip Fields of Skagit County

By Leslie Parks - Tuesday, April 27, 2021

The unusually warm sun beat down on my helmet as we rounded the curves on the Chuckanut scenic highway.  It was one of the first days of being able to take out the bike and I eagerly jumped at the chance to see the tulips. My camera gear was firmly strapped to my back as we traveled south. The bike, like my convertible is a little taste of freedom in a pandemic shut world. We randomly chose roads once in the county, looking ahead for the tell tale signs of color in the fields. Banners waved giving more clues as to which roads would lead us to the rainbows growing in the fields.  This different kind of year would not be the same.  I wasn’t taking a kid, mine or someone else’s to explore the fields together or end up at one of the main display gardens.  Last year was closed and this year was limited capacity.  Buy your ticket in advance, but we are spontaneous people and so when the day was warm and clear we found ourselves driving to find the growing rainbows. There along side a back road was a small banner with the words, enter here, pay here. We slowed and turned into the impromptu dirt and grass parking area. We wove our way through the parked cars and roped off areas to find a spot for our bike. John paid the five dollar parking fee allowing us to visit the other cutting fields from the same grower while I unstrapped my camera bag and stowed my gear.  Donning our masks we made our way to the rows further away from people so we could comfortably remove the masks and enjoy the blooms. We wandered, talked, looked and I took photo after photo, enjoying the backlit blossoms.  After a couple of fields and a card full of photos we mounted our bike and made the quick trip north; satisfied with an afternoon of an almost normal Pacific Northwest Spring day.
 









 

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