Last week, I was looking at the park brochure for South Whidbey State Park, and I realized there was a trail I had not walked. It was shocking for as often as we go there. This Washington State Park is only a couple of miles from our homestead.
It is part of the old road system that is now trails. I had never been to the far north of the state park property. But when I read this, “Walk or bike the road in the old campground to a picnic shelter in a serene setting.” I pulled up the map to find it. And there it was, a lonely picnic shelter all at the end.
I’ve never found it hard to find a “reason” to go hiking, to be honest.
The campground in this state park was shut in 2015 due to the old-growth trees rotting. It’s ironic in a way….they saved the trees in this area but were not saveable in the end.
We parked at the back lot and took the campground main road to start our walk. It’s a wide paved road that is closed to vehicles. While it follows Smuggler Cover Road, traffic isn’t loud, or well even busy most days.
The sun was out today and in the high 40’s.
You will pass 4 junctions on your left, stay straight at all.
After you pass the old park building on your right, you will pass the turn off for Wilbert Trail, on your right (this crosses the road). Stay straight. The road quickly narrows and is more a dirt path.
Just keep strolling.
You will pass an old moldering horseshoe area fenced on the left and an odd building that seems like an old pit toilet. In a short distance, the road essentially ends at a wide turn around a grassy meadow. Lawn daises were poking up today. There is also a double pit toilet here from when the road was open.
Follow the light remnants of the road as it curves to the left.
There is a trail to the right that takes you to the picnic area, or just stay on the grassy old road.
Nature’s chess and checker board?
The road ends here (the map shows it continuing in a short loop, but that is long gone).
The views are through the much-grown-up trees over the water. You can see they piled forest debris to close the area beyond.
But there is my serene and scenic picnic area!
And well, it is a nice one. It was built in 2000 based on the signature in the concrete. The fire pit and benches were an Eagle project in 2012. Honestly? It was pretty sad to see it all go to waste. I wish I had camped here back in the day, but it was a long drive to it, when I lived on the far north end of the island.
We headed back.
We took the first right into the campground loops and walked this section (I had also not hiked this part). Views waited for us at the end, over the steep bluff.
At this view awaited a game of nature tic tac toe. With wood log stools if one wanted.
The birds today I could hear were the distinct calls of migratory ones. That leaves me unsettled; outside of a week of deep freezing temperatures/snow, this winter has been a proper El Nino winter, where it hasn’t been winter. At least we are getting rain. These leaves were unfurling today. And so many trees and bushes, the leaf buds were ramping up to open early.
The views were very nice here.
We looped back out to the main road and walked back, taking the last right to go up the old campground upper loop road.
Someone had been back here with chalk, wishing every hiker a Happy Valentine’s Day. The rain will wash it off soon enough this coming week.
~Sarah