Chuckanut
Where it is
Chuckanut is the stretch of coast south of Bellingham where Chuckanut Mountain comes straight down to the water. Chuckanut Drive (State Route 11) is the old scenic road that runs through it. It leaves Fairhaven, follows the shoreline past Larrabee State Park, and comes out on the Skagit flats near Bow. What you find along it is forest, sandstone and houses tucked into the hillside, looking west over the bay toward the San Juans.
Most of it is outside Bellingham city limits, in unincorporated Whatcom County, and that changes who issues your permits and whose rules you are reading. Chuckanut has no main street of its own. For groceries, a pharmacy, a coffee or the train you go to Fairhaven, which is just up the road.
The houses and the lots
Nearly everything here is a single house on its own piece of ground. Some are old cabins, there are a good number of houses from the seventies and eighties (many remodeled since), and there are newer custom houses built to make the most of a view. Condos and townhomes barely exist out here. If that is what you want, Fairhaven is where to look.
The lots are wooded, often steep, and no two are alike. The ground under all of it is Chuckanut sandstone, which is what gives the shoreline its carved ledges and what gives builders their headaches. A lot that looks generous on paper can have a fairly small area you can build or park on.
What to check before you buy here
Start with the slope. On a hillside lot you want to know how water moves across it, what is holding the driveway and the house up, and whether anybody has had a geotechnical engineer look at it. Then find out about water and waste, because a lot of properties out here are on septic and some are on wells, and a septic inspection is its own item with its own cost. Then the driveway itself, which can be steep and shared, and which you should picture on an icy morning.
Views are most of what you are paying for, so go and look from the actual rooms, and ask what the trees below you are going to do over the next ten years and who owns them. The railway runs along the shore below the road, so on anything close to the water, be there when a train goes by. Get an insurance quote early. And if part of your plan is renting the place out by the night, check the short-term rental rules for that exact address before you count on the income.
Derek spends a lot of his time on land and feasibility, and this is the part of the county where that is most useful. There is more on the land and new construction page.
Governors Point
Governors Point is the wooded peninsula off Chuckanut Drive. Most of it now belongs to the Whatcom Land Trust, with a public trail, and the rest is sixteen homesites designed by the architect Omer Arbel. We represent it. Governors Point has its own page.
Outdoors and the water
Larrabee was Washington’s first state park and it is still the centre of things out here, with beaches, tide pools, a campground and trailheads up into the Chuckanuts. Fragrance Lake is one of the regular hikes from the park. Clayton Beach is at its south end, and Teddy Bear Cove is a small beach further north that you walk down to from the road. Oyster Dome, the lookout in everybody’s photos, is further south on Blanchard Mountain.
The Interurban Trail runs from Fairhaven down to Larrabee on an old rail grade, mostly flat and mostly in the trees. It is how you get to town on a bike without riding the Drive. The mountain above it has a big network of hiking and mountain bike trails.
On the water it is kayaks, paddleboards and small boats. The shoreline is mostly rock with a few pocket beaches, and a good share of it is a long way below the houses, so do not assume a waterfront address means you can walk down to the water. Ask.
Taylor Shellfish has its farm store down on the water off the Drive. You can buy oysters there and eat them at the picnic tables, looking out at the flats.
Day to day
You need a car. There is no bus service along the Drive, and the road is two lanes with a lot of curves and very little shoulder. On sunny weekends it fills up with visitors, cyclists and motorcycles, and the trailhead parking spills over. Now and then it closes for a while when rock or trees come down.
I-5 is a short drive away through Fairhaven. Amtrak Cascades stops at the Fairhaven station, and the Alaska ferry terminal is right beside it.
Chuckanut addresses are in the Bellingham Public Schools district. Homes along here have generally been assigned to Fairhaven Middle School and Sehome High School, but boundaries move, so look up the specific address with the district before you rely on it.
Who it suits
Chuckanut suits people who want privacy, trees and a view of the water, and who are happy to drive for a carton of milk. It draws second-home buyers, people who work from home, and people who have done their years in town and now want quiet. It is a harder fit if you want to walk to things, if you have teenagers who need rides everywhere, or if a steep driveway in January sounds like more than you want to deal with.
There is never much for sale out here at one time, so if this is where you want to be, tell us and we will keep an eye out. You can also see what is for sale now.