Finally took the time to drive out to Ledbetter - I'm happy that I went, though it's a long enough haul to get to, so I'm not sure I'll ever go back or not.

First FYI to all considering hiking here - even though it the trailhead is in a state park much of the trail system is on National Wildlife Sanctuary land and *ALL* of the trails are designated No Dogs Allowed - and that really means NO DOGS - PERIOD, not for just a little bit, not on a leash - no matter that you drove all the way there - NO DOGS. This information should probably be changed on the hike description as it indicates leashed dogs are allowed.... 

We started out at the parking area for the Martha Jordon trail. I'm happy to report that this trail has now been fully connected to the rest of the trail system at Leadbetter. It joins the Dunes Loop at around it's midpoint. We walked the entire Dunes Loop and Bay loop trails and they are completely passable. The section of the Dunes Loop, between the first parking area and the intersection with the Martha Jordon trail was a bit overgrown, but we mentioned it to the guy out clearing the trails and he said he'd see if it was wide enough to run his mini-cat down to trim it out. The Bearberry and Weather Beach trails both had enough water on them that would have meant wading and even on such a nice spring day we had no desire to be wading in knee deep (sulfurous) cold water... so we only hiked portions of each of those trails. The maps and markers are pretty good throughout the trail system *except* for the western most portion of the Dune Forest Loop. Before you pass the viewing platform you need to stay pretty much as close to the tide line as possible, otherwise you end up at the parking lot. There is a noticeable boot path but only one marker visible on the beach. You'll want to keep a close eye for the trail back into the woods - the sign is fairly far back could easily be walked past if you weren't watching for it. The boot path down the beach continues on too - so it wouldn't be hard to walk right by. 

Most of the walking is pretty easy - fairly flat - packed sand and forest tread without a lot of roots or rocks. We walked 10 miles all together, even without finishing the two side trails. 

We didn't see much in the way of birds or wildlife - the tide was quite far out, so it wasn't a great time for shore birds. In fact... the most interesting bird sighting of the day happened on I-5 quite near to downtown Olympia when an eagle carrying, what appeared to be a live opossum flew low over the highway... 

I went on this trail with my two boys, ages 7 and 11.  This was not 4 miles long, it was around 2.5. We walked the road to a gate that said private property and turned around.  There was another side trail near the gate, but the bugs were so bad, we just turned back.  Be sure to bring bug spray!  It was really pretty, but I enjoyed the trails in the Leadbetter State Park more.