{"id":1485,"date":"2016-06-01T00:25:29","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T07:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debgarland.com\/?p=1485"},"modified":"2024-08-08T11:54:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T18:54:00","slug":"sailing-by-washington-states-cactus-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/?p=1485","title":{"rendered":"Sailing by Washington State\u2019s Cactus Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moisture sweeps in from the Pacific Ocean, tumbling down as rain or snow on the western slopes of the Olympic Mountains on Washington\u2019s Olympic Peninsula. Heavy clouds spill 12 to 14 feet of rain each year in the Hoh Rain Forest<\/a>\u00a0as they drift\u00a0northeast before wringing another 18 to 20 inches over the San Juan Islands.\u00a0Combining\u00a0this weather pattern with\u00a0the unique topography of the archipelago and a perfect climate exists for the Brittle Prickly Pear cactus to inhabit San Juan Island<\/a>, <\/strong>Yellow Island<\/a>, and the Cactus Islands.<\/p>\n

\"Cactus_Islands-sailboat-stbd_2816-1024\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of three cacti in the state, the Brittle Prickly Pear is the only cactus native to Western Washington. Besides the San Juan Islands and Canadian Gulf Islands, it\u00a0is found on\u00a0Whidbey Island, north and east of Sequim, and near Port Townsend\u2014all locations within the Olympic rain shadow. Several places are former Native American encampments where the cacti were cultivated after being acquired by trade from Eastern Washington Indians.\u00a0It is believed the juice of the cacti may have been used as a fixing agent for natural dyes.<\/p>\n

\"1024px-Opuntia_fragilis_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/h5>\n

The Brittle Prickly Pear cacti (Opuntia fragilis<\/em>) form broad, low mats and grow to a height of six inches. The round, dark green pads break easily at the joints and have barbed spines, their color varying from ivory-to-red according to the time of year. In June, the yellow flowers bloom and are reminiscent of\u00a0wild roses. Preferring to grow on sunny, dry south or southwest facing slopes, the\u00a0cacti\u00a0like gravelly or sandy soil in isolated areas where competition from other plants is minimal.<\/p>\n

\"Opuntia_fragilis_-Feldberg-_(9215688536)\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/h5>\n

The Cactus Islands appear to be first named on British Admiralty Chart #2689 in 1858 or 1859. In the photo\u00a0below, Spieden Island<\/a>\u00a0is flanked by The Nature Conservancy<\/a>‘s\u00a0Sentinel Island (south) and\u00a0the Cactus Islands (north) which are privately owned. Adjacent rocks and reefs\u00a0are part of the San Juan Islands National Wildlife Refuge.\u00a0Boaters use both channels, each with strong currents, but I prefer to sail through New Channel next to the Cactus Islands where you can see more wildlife.<\/p>\n

\"1024px-Spieden-island-1989-usgs\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: U.S. Geological Survey<\/h5>\n

Thank you for reading!<\/p>\n

Blessings,
\nDeb<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0071\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moisture sweeps in from the Pacific Ocean, tumbling down as rain or snow on the western slopes of the Olympic Mountains on Washington\u2019s Olympic Peninsula. Heavy clouds spill 12 to 14 feet of rain each year in the Hoh Rain … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":1502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[463,20],"tags":[465,185,254,596,439,438,464,467,11,184,183,167,466],"class_list":["post-1485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cactus-islands","category-san-juan-islands","tag-brittle-prickly-pear-cactus","tag-cactus-islands","tag-deb-garland","tag-deb-garlands-san-juan-islands-beyond","tag-httpwww-blog-debgarland-com","tag-httpwww-debgarland-com","tag-sailing-by-washington-states-cactus-islands","tag-san-juan-island-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-san-juan-islands","tag-sentinel-island","tag-spieden-island","tag-the-nature-conservancy","tag-western-washington"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1485"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2572,"href":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions\/2572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debgarland.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}