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Highest Point
This land, officially known as the Friday Harbor Laboratory Preserve, once a military base, is now a research facility operated by the University of Washington. Please respect their request that all trail users register at the main office, and do not enter any other buildings.
Treat the main office as the trailhead even though you will walk a paved road for about 0.25 mile. A map from the office will show you how to thread through the campus buildings to the actual trail. The Fire Trail is an old double-track road running very level through a recovering forest. There are many enormous firs and a few big cedars. This level trail might be smooth enough for some wheelchair users. This northbound trail ultimately ends at Point Caution Drive. If you’re up for more of an adventure, watch for a side trail which descends to the east and the water, at approximately 1.5 miles from the trailhead. This is also a perfectly good turnaround point for those looking for an easier ramble. Other side trails are passed before this, though this one makes for the longest loop.
Descend this trail about 80 vertical feet to the water’s edge. Depending on tide levels, you may walk the beach southward to Point Caution or walk an inland trail a short ways back.
For roughly the next 2 miles, this seaside trail will bob and weave through grassy hills, glacially-scoured bedrock and alongside the ocean. Watch your step, as the tread can be very narrow in places with sharp drop-offs to the rocks below. On a sunny day ,the ocean, sky and islands are just magically blue and green beyond belief. On a rough winter’s day, the surf might give you a run for your money on this trail.
Windswept firs and madronas wrap their lusty arms around everything in sight. Mosses and lichens encrust and entomb the underlying bedrock. Under the waves to your left can be glimpsed eel grasses, kelp and many other intertidal inhabitants. Though the San Juans and the Pacific Northwest are renowned for their wetness, this side of the island is in a rain shadow, making for a very dry climate that you might not expect. Spring and early summer are a remarkable time for unique flora.
The trail can be difficult to follow in a few spots, though by generally paralleling the shore edge, you should run into it again. Two or three side trails head inland and back to the Fire Trail, giving the option to return back to easier terrain. Staying along the water’s edge, the trail will loop you back to the original trail at 3.2 miles. Turn left to return to the trailhead.
Trailhead
