Ebey's Landing — Monday, Apr. 29, 2024

We had a fantastic hike to Ebey’s Landing today. Incredible views, wild flowers galore, aqua blue waters out to the Strait of Juan de Luca and amazing friends.  This is an annual trek for my hiking group.  We drove straight up and on to the 9:00AM Mukilteo / Clinton ferry.  That gave us the whole day to explore south Whidbey Island.  It was 10:10 when we pulled up to the Ebey’s Landing historic site and only 4 cars were parked there.  The vault toilet was one of the fanciest I have ever seen and it was spotless. It was 50 degrees with mostly clear blue skies.   Recent rains made the entire trail compact hard soil all the way down the switchbacks to to beach.  There were only a couple short squishy areas.  Wildflowers were out in all their glory - Rabbit Ear Chickweed, Poison Camas, Camas, Lupine, Purple Sanical, Bristly Fiddleneck, Red Dead Nettle, Rapeseed, Desert Parsley Oregon Grape, Pacific Sanical, Fillary, White Campion and Lilacs.  We followed the prairie trail and turned right on Bluff trail and followed the switchbacks down to the beach above the 2 lagoon ponds and then south on the beach for a 5.4 mile trek. The driftwood beach logs was a perfect place for a lunch break and birthday celebration.  Bird song greeted you the entire route.  Red winged blackbirds, house sparrows, robins and white crowned sparrows were flitting above the prairie, Bald eagles were soaring above the bluffs and gulls and cormorants were hanging out on the low tide beach and a Heron was hunting in the Lagoon pond. We also spotted a lone cottontail and coyote scat was all along the upper prairie trail. Trail traffic was moderate with more people beach walking from the south beach access.  On the way back to the ferry we stopped at the Price Sculpture Forest just east of Coupeville.  What a hiding gem and collection of art.  This .8 mile walk is in an evergreen forested area and the trails had several mud puddles. We caught the 5:00 PM ferry back to Edmonds.  Another fantastic day out in nature with friends.