Forts and Nature converge in North Whidbey Island

Friday turned out to be a beautiful day on Whidbey Island. It was a great day for hiking which is what we spent most of the day doing. After getting ready in the morning, we headed back down to Fort Ebey State Park. While yesterday we spent time there on the beach, today we would spend most of our time in the woods.

Fort Ebey was built in 1942 to help protect the Puget Sound region. Its purpose was to assist the other forts in the area including the nearby Fort Casey which we visited yesterday. Fort Ebey was a small fort. There was only one bunker build with two guns. They also constructed a lookout bunker. Isaac Neff Ebey, one of the early pioneers on Whidbey Island, is the namesake of the fort.

We drove to the bunker area and spent some time wandering through it. The bunker was actually quite long inside with quite a few rooms. Of course the government removed the guns. Someone had painted the entrances to the bunker so they didn’t look so old and dilapidated. The date of their construction was clearly marked on the bunkers.

After exploring the bunkers we began to follow a trail south along the edge of the bluff. This trail was unlike the bluff trail from yesterday. The trail traveled mostly through the forest and would from time to time come out to the edge where we could see the water.This location provided a good view of the Perrigo Lagoon which we had hiked above yesterday.

Eventually we reached the end of the bluff trail and turned inland. The park has quite a few trails. They are generally well marked with signs, but because there are so many of them, it can get confusing. I had a small map of the trails which I found near the information board, and that really helped keep me on track. Without it, we may have wandered around for a long time before figuring out where we were.

What I found interesting was the kinds of growth we would walk through. The area I liked the most was where there was little underbrush and the trees could be seen clearly. It felt so open despite all the trees that were there.

However there were plenty of places where the underbrush was pretty heavy. In some places the ferns had taken over creating a green carpet. We saw quite a few rhododendron bushes both large and small. There were a few flowers here and there, but this was certainly not prime viewing season. I think a May hike through the woods could be quite beautiful. There were also areas where the bushes were quite high creating almost a wall as we walked along. Each area had its own unique beauty and interest.

We walked to the northern edge of the park to view Pondilla Lake. This is a small, but pretty lake with little access except for one viewpoint at the lake’s edge. One of the elements that made the lake so lovely was the presence of plants in the water. These were not the typical lily pads. I’m not sure what they were, but they had yellow flowers growing from the almost silvery leaves.

The lake was just north of where we had accessed the beach the day before. We got back on the bluff trail to head back south to where we had parked our car. Again the trail did not stay close to the edge of the bluff so we didn’t see much of the water. The trail had a lot more ups and downs than I expected also. I thought it would be fairly flat once we got to the top of the bluff.

We did encounter a few interesting things along the trail. First was a slab of concrete that went out to the bluffs edge near a fenced in area. I wondered if this was similar to what we had seen fallen on the beach the evening before. Shortly after that we came to a lookout where there was a narrow space that one could look out and check the water ways below. It was similar to the one we had seen down in Long Beach a few years ago.

One exciting moment was when two bald eagles flew along the bank where we were standing. I managed to get a couple of photos. They weren’t the best, but I have included one here.

We finally made it back to the car and just rested since we had walked over 4 miles. It had not always been an easy trail. We ate some snacks and got our energy back before moving on to our next adventure.

Joseph Whidbey State Park is the final state park we visited on this trip through Whidbey Island. It was named after the Ships Master of a 1792 expedition that determined that Whidbey Island was indeed an island. Joseph Whidbey is a day use only park. It has a fairly small parking lot near the water. However, it also had some hiking trails as well.

I started out hiking through the forest. The trail here is wide. I would think three people could walk together along this trail. It is an easy flat hike through the trees. Eventually the trail reaches a rather large meadow. I took a trail to the right because I some some interesting flowers to photograph. In fact taking photos of the plant life became the main interest of this hike.

After walking through a fairly narrow trail in the field, I again came to a forested area. The trail continued to move through different habitats. Sometimes it would lead through a forested area. Other times it would skirt along the edge. The plant life was different depending on what kind of an environment I was in. While the trails were sometimes quite narrow, it was generally flat so it was a fairly easy walk and about a mile and two thirds long.

After returning to the parking lot, I walked down to the beach. The views of the mountains across the water, probably the San Juan Islands, were much clearer than they had been on previous days. The beach itself was a somewhat typical northwest beach with large rocks near the water’s edge then small rocks and some sand. it was not a particularly wide beach, but it did have some driftwood up along the edge. There was also some interesting cement pieces that looked like rails down to the water and some numbered pieces. I researched it, but never determined what they were from.

By this time we were tired and hungry. However, I wanted to go into Oak Harbor. While this has been our place to stay on Whidbey Island, we had not gone into the downtown area. So we drove to what they referred to as the historic district of the town. It was basically a single street about three blocks long. There were some cute shops on the street, but it didn’t seem to be particularly busy. We did note that they were following some of the popular small town trends and had some murals around town. They also had a free concert going on at a small corner park on the main street. There were probably 25 people enjoying the music.

After we had wandered around a bit and checked out the town, we ate at one of the local restaurants and headed back to our hotel. It had been a busy day, and our old bodies were feel the challenge of so much activity. Tomorrow we would be leaving Whidbey Island and heading home.

Thanks for sharing with us on our trip to Whidbey Island. I hope you have learned something new about this wonderful Washington destination. I always like to see your comments and likes, and be sure to subscribe if you have enjoyed these posts. It’s easy to do. Just put in your email address. You will then receive an email back verifying it was you. Then you’re all set. Have a great Wednesday.