Trip report for Sunday, July 7. Hike around and through Fort Worden SP.
This is such a great spot for a diverse landscape. We parked near the main entrance on a warm summer Sunday. Some type of convention (fiddles? String instruments?) happening on the campus. Need a Discover Pass for parking here.
We started by hiking down the hill to the beach alongside the road, then directly onto the beach. The lighthouse was beautiful against the blue sky and water. Since it was low tide, we continued all the way along the beach (for about a mile from the lighthouse to county park) to North Beach County Park. Found bits of sea glass as we got closer. Note….this section can only be hiked at low tide because of the extreme cliffs and no escape path from high tide so plan accordingly! We picked it on a beautiful low tide day.
From the NB County parking lot we hiked through the exposed meadow path to the wooded Peace Mile trail. The forested trails are soft pine and plenty of space for passerby’s. We also backtracked and followed the Mule Road trail then Searchlight Road, and climbed up to the Bluff Trail looking down over the beach we just hiked. Stunning views across to Whidbey Island, Mt Baker/Kulshan, the light house, and East / South toward Fort Flagler and Port Townsend. Views of Tahoma/Rainier also.
We finished by connected with JFK trail taking us back to the main campus near the Commons.
Restrooms accessible throughout the hike, down at the beach (in great shape and clean!) the camping areas, and a few pit toilets scattered on the trails.
This area has all the views and a variety of terrain. We clocked 6 miles in our circle with the backtracking in the wooded area. You can easily make this hike longer or shorter. And bonus, if you have kiddos, the bunkers would be fun to explore.
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