Last week I mentioned that the central part of Whidbey Island was part of Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve. This is truly a unique situation in terms of the National Park System. 85% of the land within this reserve is privately owned. Nevertheless the national, state, county, and city of Coupeville have worked together to make this a place where the historical, cultural and geographic uniqueness of the region is preserved. Visitors won’t necessarily know they are in a national reserve when they come here, but those who live in the area do know it.
The state has three park areas within this reserve. We visited all three today. We started with the one in the middle, Ebey’s Landing. If one looks for this park on the list of state parks, it won’t show up. The park is mainly a parking lot and restroom next to the Strait of Juan de Fuca so there isn’t really much here although a Discover Pass is required to park here. What is here is the starting place for a number of hikes in the area. Our plan was to hike one of them.
After looking at the map we decided on the Bluff Trail hike. The trail follows along the top of the bluffs near the sound and then descends to the beach by which hikers return to the parking lot. We had to climb up some stairs to get up to the bluffs, but in the beginning they were low so it wasn’t that difficult of a climb. The first part of the trail was next to open farmland fields and was pretty flat. It wasn’t very challenging, but even from here the views down to the water were pretty spectacular.
Eventually we came to the end of the field and began to climb as the bluff rose higher. From here we could turn around and look back at the farmlands and see the mosaic created by the different fields. Here we also encountered what would be our companion throughout our hike on the bluff, hairy vetch. I don’t know where that name came from, but what we saw were masses of purple flowers. At first I thought they were lupine, but I realized these flowers were different. They pretty much covered the bluff as we walked along it, and I am sure they help stabilize the soil here as well. For us the color was so beautiful and added a lot to our hike.
We continued climbing up for a fairly short distance where we reached the top. At this point there is a forest of evergreen trees on the right. However, for the majority of our hike the trees never blocked our views. One of the spectacular things about this hike is the constant view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the land across the water in the Olympic Peninsula. The trail was easy to walk on. It is mostly compact sand. There are no tree roots or rocks to trip over. After reaching the top of the bluff there is some up and down travel, but it is not very steep.
The trail is narrow so if there is another person on the trail, it can be a challenge for them to pass. About halfway through walking the bluff, the trail moves fairly close to the edge. This became a challenge for my wife. She was quite nervous about being so close to the edge and looking down. She enjoyed the views but not the height at which she was viewing them.
While I can not speak for any other time of year, I can say that hiking in July is really spectacular. While the clouds kept us from having a clear view of the distant lands, the wild flowers really were amazing. Along with the purple hairy vetch, we also saw a number of yellow flowers. While some were common dandelions, there were other yellow flowers as well. I joked that this was University of Washington territory with the purple and gold. We did see some pink flowers along the way as well. Overall it was a beautiful hike. The view below included not only the Strait of Juan de Fuca but also Perrigo (Perego) Lagoon which lies between the beach and the bluffs.
Eventually the trail begins to slope downwards, but it is a fairly gentle slope until the very end of the bluff trail. A number of switchbacks bring hikers down to the beach level. It’s a little steeper here but not really difficult. To get to the beach from Ebey’s Landing State Park along the Bluff Trail, we clocked about two miles. From there it’s a little over a mile and a half back to the parking lot.
The beach is more sandy than some on the island, and walking on the wet sand was not really difficult. We completed the hike in about two hours. I think this is one of the most beautiful hikes in the area. One that is often overlooked because it’s on the island and not in the mountains. In the third picture below one can see a group hiking the trail as viewed from the beach.
Arriving back at Ebey’s Landing, we were both feeling hungry so I suggested we go back to Greenbank Farms for lunch. It was not too much farther south than our next stop so it made sense to go there. I was still looking for that piece of pie. Unfortunately I’m still looking. When we arrived, we were informed the restaurant was closed this day as well, but would be open tomorrow. That’s twice. Not going back tomorrow.
We ate some snacks we had with us and headed to our next stop in the Ebey’s Landing Historical Reserve, Fort Casey State Park. It has been a long time since I visited Fort Casey. I had been up to the nearby conference center a number of times in my college years as the center is owned by SPU, my college alma mater. However, it’s been probably close to 40 years since I have been back.
As we drove into the park, the area seemed a lot cleaner and larger than I remembered. The park was busy, busier than any of the parks we had been to on this trip. There was even a busload of kids from some local summer program here for the afternoon. Kites seemed to be a popular activity, and it was a great place for kite flying as a fairly consistent wind was blowing and keeping us cool.
We headed over to the batteries and explored them. Fort Casey is the third of the three forts built to help guard the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the entrance to Puget Sound. Fort Worden and Fort Flagler on the Olympic Peninsula are the other two which we visited last fall.
In many ways the batteries were similar to the ones we had seen before, but it’s always interesting to check things out and read the information that is provided about the guns and the way things were handled. Kids especially enjoy running around inside the dark rooms below as they can be pretty dark and foreboding in places.
We eventually wound up walking along the edge of the bluffs again although it was not so high up and much flatter than the bluffs at Ebey’s Landing. We came across a place I don’t think I had seen before. There is no information about this particular concrete structure that was sticking out over the bluff. Rails on the floor would indicate that perhaps something was rolled out, perhaps a gun, but we didn’t really know.
After walking along the wide stretch of mowed grass that served as a trail along the bluff, we headed over to the other iconic building at the park, the Admiralty Head Lighthouse. Visitors can go up into the lighthouse tower as well as into the keeper’s residence. At this point I was starting to feel tired so I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to go inside.
We were also distracted by a boat, a huge military ship actually that was sailing out of the strait towards the Pacific Ocean. There were three small boats around it, for whatever purpose. Someone said it was the USS Nimitz. I don’t know if that is true or not. I got out my telephoto lens to see if I could get any identifying information looking through it, but it didn’t help much.
After that excitement was over, we headed back to the car. I really was starting to drag so we stopped and got some pizza near Coupeville. After eating that I felt a little more energetic so we took off to our final destination for the day in Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, Fort Ebey State Park. This turned out to be a large park. A ranger even asked to see our Discover Pass which had not happened at the other state parks. We drove over to a small parking area near the water and got out to walk the beach.
This was an interesting beach as there were areas of gravel like pebbles, others of sand, and then near the water, areas of large rocks that was difficult to walk over. We walked down the beach for a ways and discovered a place where there were large slabs of concrete. I think they had fallen from the bluffs above. In fact there was a concrete slab about halfway down the bluff. I don’t know what this was from, but since the park had apparently been a fort at some point, perhaps it was some kind of structure from that.
Since I had my telephoto lens on my camera, I was enjoying taking photos of boats passing by as I could get nice close ups of them. The whale excursion boats were quite full. The clouds added interest as well so it seemed a perfect combination for taking some beautiful photos.
And so our day at Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve came to an end. Tomorrow we plan to go back to do some hiking in Fort Ebey State Park and also go to our final state park on the island.
Are you enjoying reading about Whidbey Island? Have I peaked your interest in visiting it in the near future? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below. Also don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t done so already. Just provide your email, and you will receive a new post each Wednesday. There’s no spam involved!
Great pics (as usual). We love Whidbey Island. Pam’s brother, Brian, lives in Coupeville. Where did you stay on the Island? (And Yep. That’s the Nimitz.)
We stayed in Oak Harbor. I wanted to stay in Coupeville, but limited options.