It was our Annual Earth Day Clean Up Hike and this year we went back to Ebey’s Landing with our friends! The sun was out, lots of flowers starting to bloom and not a ton of trash to pick up except near the parking lot. We found a poop back about 15 steps from a trash can plus a bunch of tissues. (Don’t worry, we wore gloves.) Lots of candy wraps and bottle caps in the dried seaweed and driftwood near the parking lot. A few random pieces of plastics along the beach. Overall, a very clean trail and beach! The trail is very dry and dusty in places. I think a lot of the flowers will be blooming in the next few weeks. 

Camped a couple of nights up at Fort Ebeyso this hike was a must.  Got to the trailhead after a long morning at camp (12:30) with partly sunny skies and a nice gentle cool breeze.  Not problem finding parking on this Monday .since the tide was low we decided to do the loop clockwise (beach first, then bluff).  We did a little beach combing but mostly kept a steady pace.  The water was still and there was lots of waterfowl and birds in the meadows on the hillside.  Saw a couple of eagles too.  I’m always still blown away by the colors of the water, sky, grasses, and marsh area every time I do this hike.  Saw relatively few hikers and dogs so kind of nice to have the space. Once I saw whales from up on the bluff but not today.  Always fun to see what shows up in the water.  Great and beautiful hike.

We started with the bluff part of the loop and the uphill part was a little tough for our kiddos, especially because it was ALL up for a while (and not a little up, a little down like hiking is usually) and there were a couple steep dropoffs that made me nervous with our youngest son BUT…..the views. I’d put up with anything for those views. Wow.

Not sure the hike would be THAT amazing on a cloudy day but the day we went was blue sky, blue water, yellow sun. Perfect PNW spring day!

Talk about an under-rated hike. This one doesn't seem to get as much attention on WTA, possibly because it's a bit out of the way and doesn't sound too challenging. Yes it's very easy, but what it lacks in cardio it more than makes up in stellar views. Starting from the lot next to Sunnyside Cemetery it's a roughly 5.2 mile loop with 360 feet of cumulative elevation gain, but you can easily extend it by venturing further up or down the beach, or even doing the loop twice! As pretty as it was I was sorely tempted to do the latter, but I was too pressed for time. But on to the details...

I reached the lot next to Sunnyside Cemetery at 10am, and of course the weather today could hardly have been any better. Some high clouds and haze to the south, making Rainier hard to see, but otherwise the temps were in the upper 50s with a gentle breeze so there was little else to complain about. The trail was dry and firmly packed, and from the very beginning the views were terrific. First there were the colorful farms down below and the Ebey family house to see. Once I reached the bluff I decided to go counterclockwise and do the bluff first, which I am glad I did. From there I didn't break much of a sweat because I was stopping to take pictures so often. After a little under two miles the trail switchbacks its way back down to the beach, and from there it's a gentle walk along the sand and pebbles south to the Ebey’s Landing parking lot, then a modest climb back to the bluff junction.

While this is a great one for kids, it's important to keep them close so that they don't wander too close to the bluff's edge. Also the bluff trail is very narrow in places, making it problematic to pass people at times and possibly not a good idea to have a dog in tow. There was a fair number of other hikers there, as well as a few dogs, but fortunately everyone was spaced out enough for some solitude. Unfortunately I didn't see much in the way of wildlife aside from aquatic birds, but the spring flowers are definitely popping out which was a fair tradeoff.

The loop can be done in about two hours, but with all the goofing off I did I wasn't back to my car until 12:30pm. I left the side trails and rest of the beach for future exploration. On the way back I briefly checked out the town of Coupeville, which added about an hour to my stay.

What Eric Katanaboy said in the previous trip report! Except we were there on Wednesday and the sun came out for us. Tall Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) blooming profusely and patches of spring gold lomatium (Lomatium utriculatum). Also lots of non-native flowers, especially purple deadnettle (Lamium maculatum). Shout out to the Island County staff wading through the prickly wild roses to spray noxious weeds!