It was a late spring day and under a fragile, egg-shell sky the waters of Bellingham Bay were laid out like crumpled blue silk. My buddy, Art Favinger, piloted his Bayliner boat out beyond Portage and Lummi to tiny Matia Island, a 145-acre marine park on the Strait of Georgia. The island is part of the San Juan National Wildlife Refuge and is simply stunning. We docked at Rolfe Cove which provides 128 feet of overnight moorage.

Pristine and quiet, I walked around Matia and observed the abundant rock formations which consist of tilted beds of sandstone and conglomerates, wave cut caverns and honeycombed rocks. The wilderness trail offers a unique glimpse of protected old growth island forest habitat present in only a few places in the region.

Matia was named in 1792 by the Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza as Isla de Mata, which can be translated into English as “island of no protection”^[2]or other meanings relating to lush plant growth.

Matia Island, pronounced (“Ma-TEE-ah”), was established as “a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife” in 1937 and became a National Wildlife Refuge in 1940.