Exploring
The Hood Canal

“eologic forces that make Hood Canal what it is today -- one of only two fjord like bodies of water in the continental U.S., its water flow limited by a shallow sill near its mouth -- are only partially understood.

Much of what we know is only theory, and some of that theory is in dispute. But it appears Hood Canal is the work of rivers and a series of glaciers that exploited a weakness along the edge of the Olympic Mountains, a weakness probably created by a geologic fault line. For millions of years, the subterranean ocean plates have moved under North America in the never-ending reshaping of the earth.

Two or three yards at a time every 1,000 years or so, volcanic rock created on the Pacific ocean floor migrated to what has become the west coast of America. Some was thrust upward, building the Olympics. But most moved under the continental plate until it reached depths where temperatures melted it. That molten rock sought escape in a series of volcanoes that created the Cascades. In between were the Puget Lowlands, and what would become the Hood Canal, which stretches 63 miles from its mouth to the tip of Lynch Cove at Belfair.”

Like a Viking Ship of old silently gliding the Scandinavian fjords, navigate this unique American geologic wonder and conjure up the days when sail was the way. Call StarSail Cruises for assistance and information.

*Excerpts of Splendor at Risk, by Travis Baker