Remy took his humans out of the house for a stroll down memory lane, enjoying the Ancient Cedar, Wilburt Trail, and Ridge Route Trail at South Whidbey State Park for the first time in a decade. 
We parked in the state park; there are a few spots along the road but a) cars move fast and b) we have the Discover pass so it’s worth the extra space. Recent weather and bridge reconstruction has closed parts of the Wilburt Trail but there’s still an enjoyable loop that takes you deep into old growth and dense fern areas. 
We went slow, and enjoyed seeing the 500 year old cedar standing strong in all her glory. 
A big shout out to all the good folks keeping the trail in good repair. There’s plenty of work to be done - many planks on the marsh bridges are soft and rotting through - but current conditions never felt dangerous. 

So often we've just blown right be this park. We actually camped here one time in 1996 when the campground was open and our kids were toddlers. So we targeted South Whidbey State Park in our quest to hike every possible park and preserve on Whidbey.

We started off hiking uphill on the Wilbert Trail. Note the downslope portion of the Wilbert Trail is closed for bridge maintenance (no estimated completion date found). So we continued up and around the Ridge Loop Trail. It's a nice forest walk with very few downed branches and logs, a few muddy spots, NBD.

Back at the parking area we decided to walk through the old campground with a side trip to the Ancient Cedar. It's quite big as cedars go, and well worth seeing. Stay back behind the fence and karma will be with you.

A lovely little trail to get out for a wander. About 1 hour, 15 minutes walking at a moderate to brisk pace. The section of the Wilbert trail between Fern Gulley and Ridge Loop is closed, so I did the western part of the loop along the park road west of Smugglers Cove Road.

Several trees down across the trail due to recent wind. A couple I had to sit on to go over, and a couple low crouches going under, but they were all passable for me.

Definitely glad I had waterproof hiking boots. It was as muddy as one might expect in late December, but not muddier. Ankle-height boots were plenty.

I hadn't been to the park since the early 80s when we took our kids camping here. Well, the young kids are now in their 40s. A lot has changed since then with the closing of the campground and the addition to the park of the forest on the other side of the road where the trails are now. There is a nice info sign in the upper parking lot with the history of saving it from the lumber mills. Anyway, to the trail conditions. We did the outer loop, Wilbert trail, Ridge Loop trail and Fern Gully. Be sure and stop and check out the old cedar tree on the Fern Gully, it's the oldest, but there are other large old trees along the way. The east side of the Wilbert is muddy and a bit slick, better to do the loop counterclockwise so you're not coming down thru this. The Fern Gully and north side of the Ridge had nice boardwalks thru most of the mud. We retraced some of our steps to get 3.5 miles. Crossing back thru the parking lot (with a stop at the restroom, in great shape) We hiked thru the ghost like former campground to the Hobbit trail and found a nice bench at the end with a view of the water (but not much today, gray on gray) where we ate our lunch. We saw no Hobbits, but them Hobbits are small, soft footed and hide well, so you never know. A Hobbit would be disappointed in the mushrooms however, most were pretty soggy. There is currently no beach access.  

This is a nice winter walk- but there were quite a few muddy areas to trudge thru especially along the Ridge loop.  Spotted a a variety of funghi.

There is a parking lot off the main highway with a loo.  But we drove down a short distance to the State Park parking lot where there are nice facilities.