Every year we find time to visit the forts of Whidbey Island, Wa – meaning Fort Ebey and Fort Casey, that are now state parks. It’s interesting to see how things change, and more is restored, year by year, to bringing the forts back to their glory years.
Pick a couple of days when it isn’t too hot, but no marine layer over the water (where it feels like fall has arrived). Let that sun in, in the high 60’s. Have a breeze off the water.
We went to Fort Ebey State Park first, and visited the battery that sits high on the bluff. A lot of work has been done in it, even more the past two years.
Fort Ebey was the last fort built in the area, in 1942. It is relatively young compared to the other forts in the area.
The paint job they did awhile back, and it has held up. There are 3 entrances into it. The PNT (Pacific Northwest Trail) wraps by the fourth side, on the edge of the bluff.
When you walk into the main entrance what is very noticeable are the lights. It’s been dark in there since I was a child – and that was long ago. It’s rather jarring lit up. It’s different to say the least. It is lit halfway thru, and then where it turns to go out the side entrance, that hallway is lit as well.
The last half, that comes out to the back entrance, does not have lights. It is how it felt as a teen running thru this battery. Gloriously dark and always cold inside the concrete.
The back entrance.
We walked out to the bluff, dropped down to the lower bluff and walked out to the edge of the cliff 0ver the water. The Olympic Mountains over the Salish Sea reminds me always of where I am. Living on an island has its benefits.
Looking between the two land sections, you can see Tahoma (Mt. Rainier) rising up above the Salish Sea. You might not see it in the photo, but in person it is very obvious. There is nothing quite like Tahoma.
Just around the corner and a few miles down is where I call home on this rock.
The next day, being just as pretty out, we headed to Fort Casey State Park. Built in the late 1800’s and decommissioned after WWII, it has a lot of history in the land.
We were looking for a specific battery to visit that we had been in before. Alas, it has now been sealed off with new metal doors.
We were hoping to revisit the fallout shelter area that we had been in a few years back.
Still, the major part of the fort is still mostly usable. Well, the front rooms are. But many areas are now shut off I have noticed. Standing up high on hill, looking down at the fort, built into the bluff. The Salish Sea and Port Townsend sits across the way.
There was a group of men working on the fort, part of the restoration. And lo, 2 of them had restored WWII era military trucks and a Jeep.
It’s cool to watch your kids become teens, and head off to do things they used to beg me to go with them.
The boys up high. Love they put up the big US flags this year.
It’s history. It’s hiking. It is just being outside in the sun. (Just don’t tell the boys they are actually homeschooling in summer……)
~Sarah