Fort Ward State Park — Oct. 22, 2018

Puget Sound and Islands > Seattle-Tacoma Area

4 photos

WTA Member

Outstanding Trip Reporter

900

Fall foliage

3 people found this report helpful

My good friend treated me to a tour of Bainbridge Island today. Stayed foggy all day but it wasn’t cold and I think it made the fall colors stand out even more.

We started by making a lap around Battle Point Park. This neighborhood park has sports fields, tennis courts, a pea patch and duck pond. It also has an excellent walking trail with many beautiful trees.

Next we grabbed a latte and headed over to Fay Bainbridge Park for a walk on the beach. There is a little campground here, playground and beach. Perfect for kicking back on the driftwood and looking for pretty pebbles.

Our third stop was Fort Ward State Park. We parked at the lower lot which put us on a flat paved trail with opportunities to access the beach. Millions of little crabs and anemones on the beach. Lots of birds and a couple of harbor seals. Beautiful walk through the maple trees.

Close to home but felt like a vacation day.

Gazzam Lake and Close Beach, Fort Ward State Park — Jun. 29, 2013

Puget Sound and Islands > Seattle-Tacoma Area

3 photos

explorerdogs

100

Hiked with a dog

2 people found this report helpful

We went on another island adventure today, exploring a couple of different areas of Bainbridge Island. We started early catching the ferry from Kingston and driving down to Bainbridge and arriving at the Deer Path Lane trailhead of Gazzam Lake Preserve at about 9am. Only one other car in this small parking lot that probably has room for 8 or so vehicles. We started on the main trail and followed it until it split and we took the Loop trail. This trail is fairly wide and flat and in great condition. The loop trail takes you past the lake and there are several small side trails that take you down to the lake but access is limited. Only one spot big enough to actually get into the water and too overgrown to really get a great view of the lake. After letting the dogs get wet to cool off we continued on until we met the Close Beach Trail and headed down it. This trail does get steep in places but you come to the shore and a secluded beach. It was a nice reprieve from the heat to be near the water, get wet, and rest up for the short but steep climb back up. We again met with the main trail and returned to our vehicles. This was a very pleasant hike on a very warm day. Very peaceful, quiet, uncrowded and unrushed. Just what an island hike should be like. After completing this hike, we drove ten minutes to Fort Ward State Park. From the parking lot there is a short, paved walk down to a picnic area. We ate some lunch and then wandered along the park. Again, a few people using the park, but no crowds at all for such a lovely day to be out on the beach. There appeared to be a swap meet of sorts happening on the island as we passed a lot of traffic and parked cars along streets when driving to our destination and many people walking with armloads of furniture and such. So maybe Bainbridge has other priorities on Saturdays. All in all, this was a laid back kind of day. Putting in a few miles in the woods and along the shore and enjoying the cool island sea breeze before returning through Winslow to get the Seattle Ferry home. A nice little loop.

Fort Ward State Park — Mar. 6, 2011

Puget Sound and Islands > Seattle-Tacoma Area

4 photos

Hikingqueen

300

After seeing WTA's hike of the week Gazzam Lake & Close Beach I packed up the husband and dog and we hit the ferry line Sunday morning. We missed the 7:55 by 5 mins, oh well time for me to play with my new camera. The plan was to hit a few places and get a feel for the island, neither of us had spent anytime here and it's always fun to explore a new place. First stop was Fort Ward State Park, gate was closed we parked just outside and chatted with some "locals" and then hit the trail up. We explored the old forts and enjoyed the birds singing and hardly any people just a couple of runners. Then we went back down to the beach and enjoyed seeing birds and seals. After that we were off to Gazzam Lake. I was armed with a book, map print out of island, and gps. We managed to find deerpath road and we parked at the TH. We saw sign for Peter's Trail and took that only to find it wasn't the correct trail. Very well built trail but no lake or beach. There was a gate but we didn't explore down the road that way, I'm sure that was the right way after getting all the way home and looking at the map we were SUPER close. Oh well, just another reason to go back. We were just exploring anyway. We were both hungry and stopped at Island Grill for quick burger lunch then on to Fay Bainbridge State Park. It was windy and beautiful, loved the double chairs they have for all to enjoy. Perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.