Scattered between Puget Sound to the south and the Strait of Georgia to the north, the San Juan Islands of Washington State are a plethora of jewels that touring buffs fervently take to in good and sometimes even bad weather. There are 768 islands, rocks, and reefs in this archipelago at low tide; at high tide the number drops to 457. Of these, about 180 are deemed important enough to have names. They are the last vestiges of a now submerged and forgotten continent, ancient mountaintops that are far older than the surrounding mainland and have been worn down by glaciers and eons of weathering. The islands are rich with glacial till, providing good soil for massive stands of timber and thickets of fern. The many bays, sounds, and inlets of their jagged coastlines create thousands of miles of habitat for sea birds, shellfish, river otters, seals, and sea lions.