I took our almost-four-year-old on the Bluff Trail, starting at Ebey’s Landing Road. The mountain views across the way were hazy, but we both thought seeing a lake (lagoon) right next to the ocean was pretty neat! 

Road: paved

Parking lot: both at noon and 4 PM on a hot, sunny Saturday, the lot was full, with 20-30 cars on the road.

Bathroom: clean and stocked, before and after, including hand sanitizer.

Trail condition:

• Almost 100% of the walk is in direct sunlight, with a few small trees providing momentary shade on the bluff. Bring that sunscreen if you burn easily!
• The upper part was all sandy dirt, mostly hard, easy to follow but slippery for kids in some of the steep downhill parts.
• The lower part was simply walking directly on the beach. That took us FOR-EV-ER. She was enjoying it so much that she had to stop every thirty seconds to admire yet another differently-colored-rock and toss it in the water. Forward motion on a beach is not her strong suit.

Views: the section above the lake/lagoon was definitely our favorite!  

Navigation: lots of signs with reminders to stay on the trail, due to dangerous erosion. Side trails made it clear some folks hadn’t, but it wasn’t hard to tell which branch to use.

Ice cream: the trail description wasn’t kidding about the portions being generous at Kapaws Iskreme – a “single” is three scoops! Absolutely delicious, the line moves quickly, and two singles (so, six scoops) were only $15.

All in all, a successful adventure! Hopefully we can make it out that way again sometime.

Got to the cemetery trailhead around 12:30PM. Still quite a few spots to park. Hiked down to the ridge and took the switchbacks down to the beach. Quite. Few people on the trail but most were by the beach parking lot and not out doing the hike. 
Fairly easy hike, and the weather was gorgeous. Make sure to bring sunscreen and water, there’s no shade and it gets hot on the exposed trail. 
Went at a pretty leisurely pace, took about 2 hours. 5.25 miles, 425 feet of elevation gain.

We arrived at the parking area off of Cemetery Road around 1 PM on a sunny Wednesday and the parking area was about half full. There are restrooms nearby and they were in good shape today. I didn't see any signage indicating a Discovery Pass was needed to park here but I decided to display mine just to be safe. 

From the parking area, we followed the Prairie Ridge Trail straight out to the intersection with the Bluff Trail and turned left to follow the trail down the bluff. At the bottom of the bluff, we walked along the beach past the parking area at the bottom of the hill and wandered about a half mile down the beach to a sign indicating that the beach was private property past that point. There were no obstacles of note on the trail at any point on our hike today. 

Since it was warm and there was no shade at any point along the trail, we decided to turn around and follow the same route back to the parking area instead of completing the full loop. In all, we hiked about 4 miles round trip and arrived back at the parking area around 4 PM. 

Ebey's Landing is a great place to hike year around.  In Winter the wind on the bluff can be Gale Force Winds. The sunset are spectacular. Trail is relatively easy but make sure you hike the beach at low tide and hike in the packed sand close to the water which is way easier on the ankles. Listen to the waves as they are very soothing and it makes you want to keep coming back as I do about four times a year. Checkout the video of this hike by clicking on the link below or checkout my VIMEO Channel at the link below that of over 400 trails I have hiked throughout Washington State and beyond.

As always get out and see this beautiful state and enjoy your hiking!

Take Care,

Mike

The hiking grandmas didn't want to do heat in the mtns today, so this was a perfect hike. We started at the bottom on State Park land and hiked the beach, as to catch the tide going out, then hiked up the bluff section so the way back would be all downhill after it got hot. The whole trail is exposed, be prepared with sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat plus water. I brought a full nalgene and it was barely enough. The hike was beautiful, the farmland was green and gold, Baker out, Olys out but too hazy for Rainier. Channel your inner Jimmy Hendrix, it's all Purple Haze with the slope covered with vetch in full bloom! We also saw roses, honeysuckle, sand verbena, and the lupine was just finishing up.  No real issues with the trail, except the sand is dry and slick coming down the hill, we were glad we chose to hike up the bluff. We had a fun encounter with an eagle, he/she was trying to catch a fish along the edge of the water. We watched as it finally caught one and ate it. Then another appeared and they left circling the water. Soon a juvenile came soaring over and the parents and juvenile landed on the hill. We couldn't see clearly, but it appeared the parents were feeding the young one still. It must have just fledged! Loo at both the state park TH and up above at the historical park. TP today, but no sanitizer. Fresh strawberries plus ice cream at the farmstand just north of Oak Harbor, left side going north.