It was pouring rain when my husband and I left to go hiking Friday morning, so we decided to head to our fair weather location for the day's hike.
We chose the Kettle trail system and began at the Pondilla lake access parking lot in Fort Ebey State park. Click here to see a great map of the area and it's trails: https://www.nps.gov/ebla/planyourvisit/upload/050514-trails-map.pdf.
Today's hike had a two-fold mission: to get out of the rain & as a scouting trip to figure out a loop hike that went from Ebey's landing to Fort Ebey and the Kettle trails and back (for another day's adventure).
We hiked out to a small view area before heading to the Bluff trail. We both saw a California Sea lion swimming just off shore. What a treat!
We didn't have any rain except for a small drizzle at the end of our hike, but the wind was really blowing when we began.
The trail snaked through densely growing Salal bushes, making me feel as if we were hiking on Hobbit trails.
There is a nice picnic area where the tables have their own fence framed setting.
We came to a kiosk with some info. on the area and a trail map. If you look at the photo below you'll the picture of the California Sea lion that we had seen earlier.
We continued on to the bunkers and the large open area parking lot.
View from inside the bunker.
Back to the Hobbit trail.
A bit dark, chilly and windy as we headed towards the Bluff trail.
A personal note, yes I've gone purple haired again❤, since this is my birthday month and I'll be turning 65 I decided to color it again.
I noticed a fragrance in the air I hadn't smelled for awhile. We looked around and noticed that the Scotch-broom was beginning to bloom!
Notice how dark it was where my husband was hiking along in front of me along the open field area.
We saw some great wind swept trees along the Bluff trail.
A peek at the beach looking towards Ebey's landing. In May we hiked from Ebey's landing along the beach to almost where we were on now on the Bluff trail. We had looked up that day wondering if it was possible to link the two areas. Today's hike solved that question for us. It would be totally doable, you'd just want to check the tides before you started. You can read about that day's hike HERE and look at photos of the wonderful boulders that we walked across as we rounded the point in the photo below.
As we made our way to the Cedar Grove trail we got one more view of the beach before we headed away from the Bluff trail.
Cedar Grove trail junction.
Looking down at the trail. This trail system gets it name from the glacial depressions called "Kettles" in this area. You can read about it in this WTA trail report.
Cute little mushrooms along the trail.
Micro photo of one of the mushrooms.
As we hiked under some power lines we came into a grove of Rhododendrons. That would be a nice area to hike when they are blooming.
We joined the Kettle trail that connects with the paved trail that is parallel to hwy 20 near Coupeville.
When we did our previous "beach" Ebey landing hike last May, we hiked along the paved trail seen in the photo below and stopped at this very kiosk.
When we began our return on the Kettle trail we had a small drizzle of rain for awhile but more of a mist than anything. It didn't last long.
As we hiked along the Kettle trail on our return we stopped at this kiosk to check out the map (we had a printed copy of our own as well), note the trail sign to the left "Confusion". If someone was in this area without a map, that is the state they would be in😉
Entering the Fort Ebey State park area again.
We chose to get back to the Bluff trail via the Hokey Ka Do Do trail.
Another sweeping ocean view looking towards the south. When we got to the open Bluff trail it was nice to see that the wind had nearly stopped, as you can see a much calmer view of the water.
Looking down at the open field near the larger parking area.
We toured the larger Bunker/Gunnery area as we ended our Bluff trail hike.
The sun was beginning to get low and we were seeing the beginnings of a sunset. What a great plan to leave Bellingham and it's rain and hike in the rain shadow of Whidbey Island.
Here's the relive video of our route:
Garmin stats:
total miles hiked - 8.35 miles
total ascent - 1306 feet
total descent - 1345 feet
