This was an exploratory hike for me. I was looking at the map of Whidbey Island for wetlands beaches and particularly nature areas and came across Deer Lagoon Natural Preserve that nearly shares the shoreline to the east with Double Bluff. The Lagoon is a" National Audubon Registered Important Area" with 211 species of birds recorded here. There is a kiosk at the beginning of the trail with information including an up-to-date list of current birds monthly. This month: sharp-shinned hawk, bufflehead and grebe. I did see the grebes in addition to mallards, Canada geese, red winged blackbirds and northern pintails.
I began at the end of Deer Lagoon Road in a residential area where the trail is thick with blackberry bushes on either side. The trail emerges into an open area and splits going along the tops of two dikes heading southwest or going east and then south. When you can't see the whole area, it appears to broken up by separate bodies of water but it all part one lagoon. The trail is not a loop as it ends at two separate spits. If you do the whole walk with retracing your steps the distance is about 3.3 miles.
There are two trailheads, the one I took at the end of Deer Lagoon Road and another that is on a private residential area where permission is required for entrance. I'm not sure who you get permission from in that case. The deer Lagoon Road trailhead is not a private area but there is limited parking along side the road for 4-5 cars taking care not to block the neighbor's driveways.
There are no restrooms available.
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