South Whidbey State Park — Friday, Mar. 11, 2011

Puget Sound and Islands > Whidbey Island

Directions to this park and the trails are well described in Craig Romano's book,"Day Hiking Central Cascades". The beach trail was closed because of the Tsunami warning so we started our hike by doing the 1 mile Forest Discovery loop which begins on the west side of the park south of the Day Use Parking area. Because of the recent heavy rains the trail was muddy in places and the strong winds of the day before may have been the reason for 2 downed trees across the trail.These were easily negotiated. Skunk cabbage was beginning to bloom. We then did the 1.9 mile Ridge Loop Trail on the east side of the park to the Wilbert Trail. Here we turned right and walked a short distance to a 500 year old "Giant Cedar".We then returned right on the Wilbert Trail passing through beautiful groves of Douglas Fir and cedar trees and logs covered with many varieties of beautiful moss. There are many boardwalks along this trail which helped to keep our boots out of the mud. This was a very pleasant new area for us to explore!