Kelly's Point - Skagit Land Trust

[48.52803,-122.6468]

Property Type: Trust-Owned
Date Added: 2018

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

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Conservation Story

In 2018, Skagit Land Trust purchased 28 acres and 3,000 feet of shoreline, creating the Kelly’s Point Conservation Area. The Conservation Area includes iconic Yellow Bluff, a view well-known to passengers of ferries and boats passing through Anacortes. The Kelly’s Point Conservation Area provides access to over a half-mile long stretch of beach enjoyed by visitors for scenic walks and birding.

More than 425 families, organizations, and businesses donated to the campaign to conserve Kelly’s Point. Almost half of project donors had direct connections to Guemes Island, and most donations came from residents of Skagit, Whatcom, and Island counties. The donations from community members are a testament to the deep love that is held for these lands and beaches.

Site History and Ecology

Kelly’s Point Conservation Area protects the cliffs of Yellow Bluff. Yellow Bluff is a “feeder bluff” that feeds sand, mud, pebbles and other sediment to nearby beaches and marine tidelands as it slowly erodes. These sediments to build beaches across the islands, including at nearby 64-acre Peach Preserve managed by the San Juan Preservation Trust. The sediment anchors marine eelgrass meadows which provide habitat for surf smelt, mollusks, and shrimp.

Kelly’s Point Conservation Area boasts ecological qualities that are increasingly rare in Puget Sound. It is one of only a few places left in the Pacific Northwest with a mature coastal forest along an undeveloped marine shoreline. Scientists classify the immense cliffs of Yellow Bluff as an “exceptional feeder bluff”. Only 2% of Puget Sound shorelines meets the standards for this classification.

*Pigeon guillemot. Photograph credit: Dennis Paulson.*

Kelly’s Point Conservation Area provides homes and nesting areas for countless bird species, including a colony of Pigeon Guillemots. The upland forest provides roosting, perching, and foraging habitat for a variety of raptors such as the bald eagle, osprey, and Cooper’s hawk, as well as migratory songbirds.

By protecting Kelly’s Point Conservation Area the island’s marine waters, bluffs, and forests remain connected for wildlife. Kelly’s Point marks the westernmost edge of an open space corridor of conserved lands from Square Harbor to Yellow Bluff on Guemes Island.

Geology

At Kelly’s Point Conservation Area, Yellow Bluff exposes a remarkable sequence of sediments spanning 70,000 years of Earth’s history from before the last ice age, to about 13,000 years ago. Yellow Bluff provides one of the best exposures of a sequence of glacial sediments from this period, providing a window into the past.

*Kelly’s Point Conservation Area exposes sediments deposited by glaciers tens of thousands of years ago along Yellow Bluff.*

At the base of the bluff, sediments accumulated between 70,000 and 40,000 years ago form the Whidbey Formation. The Whidbey Formation includes sand, gravel, peat, volcanic ash, and organic sediments that accumulated during the period between two of the many ice age glaciations of Puget Sound.

On top of the Whidbey Formation is a dark grey peat layer, which was deposited about 40,000 to 30,000 years ago. Like the Whidbey Formation, these sediments were deposited during a period between two ice age glaciations. Geologists call this period the “Olympic interglacial interval.” The peat and organic beds host several fossils that record the climate and environment of this period.

Overlying the peat layers are further glacial deposits that record the passage of the most recent ice sheet from Canada between 17,000 and 14,000 years ago. These layers include sand and gravel deposited by the advancing glacier. This layer is topped by a poorly sorted mixture of sand, silt, and rocks called “till” that was deposited beneath the glacier itself. At the top of Yellow Bluff is sediment that was deposited beneath the glacier as it retreated north and floated in the rising sea. Eventually the land rebounded from the weight of the ice and lifted these sediments above sea level to where they are now.

Access

The beach at Kelly’s Point Conservation Area is open for low-impact, non-motorized use. The cliffs above the property are unstable and not safe to climb. We encourage you to visit the beach via a short access trail from the parking area.

Please review SLT’s Visitor Guidelines and keep the following in mind before visiting Kelly’s Point Conservation Area.

Access to the beach is down a steep bluff using a pre-existing steep ramp. Use with caution and at your own risk! The access point may not be appropriate at this time for people with physical disabilities or for very young children.
Please do not dig or excavate into the feeder bluff. This includes carving, creating caves, and other activities that accelerate erosion and destabilize the bluff.
Please note that during high tide some parts of the beach may become inaccessible making a return trip difficult and hazardous.

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. Drive or bike north off the Guemes Island Ferry several hundred feet and then take a left (west) on South Shore Drive. Follow South Shore Drive for approximately 1 mile. At the corner of South Shore Drive and West Shore Drive there is a parking area with trail access to the beach. Once on the beach, the publicly accessible Conservation Area continues for about 0.5 miles to the right (north).