Ebey's Landing

Normally I try to avoid a popular hiking place like Ebey's Landing on a Saturday. But today I'm thirsty, frantic, for ocean views and there is no other place like the views you can get from the top of Ebey's Landing.

Snow capped Olympics across the Strait of Juan de Fuca

The parking lot is full and I snag a place along the road, trying hard to keep my wheels off the white line. A park ranger is down in the parking lot checking for Discovery Passes in vehicles and although I don't need one parked on the road, I hang mine from the rear view mirror anyways. I'm a little worried my left rear tire is straddling the white line. Maybe seeing that I'm a good Discovery Pass payer will get me a little grace.

I see several men with huge backpacks sitting and eating lunch at one of the picnic tables and I stop to ask them how far they're hiking. They're training for upcoming hikes and are going from Fort Ebey to Fort Casey to camp. I wish them good hiking and continue up the stairs and up the hill.


Wildflowers bloom on the edge of an Ebey barley field with Mt. Baker in the distance

Heading up. Go high for the views.

I continue up to the top of the bluff, pausing a couple times to catch my breath and drink in the views. The hillsides are a riotous blend of purple and yellow wildflowers and the blue water far below glistens in the sun. Across the sound I can see the snow capped Olympic Mountains.

Purple covered hills

Before I know it I'm at the end of the trail and heading down the switchbacks. I take the longer gentler switchbacks to save my knees and pause at the bottom to give Sadie a drink. She is panting, tongue lolling out, and drains the bowl of water quickly, lapping it up in great gulps. Normally I skip as much of the beach walk as I can by taking the trail along Perego Lake, but today I'm Sadie-thirsty for the ocean and I don't care if I have to hike in the soft sand. I need the blue ocean and I drink in the views greedily as I continue down the beach, gulping in the sand and the waves and the kelp and the soothing lap of the waves on the shore.


Heading down the switchbacks. Perego Lake in front.

The Earth laughs in flowers - Ralph Waldo Emerson "Hamatreya"

I pass a few other hikers and watch as some boys try to skip rocks in the water. Sadie acts like she's going to drink the ocean water and I stop and give her another drink. Thirsty, we are both so thirsty.

Kelp decorates the beach

In the distance a black sailed sailboat cruises across the sea

My thirst slacks a bit as I continue on the beach. By the time I return to my car my thirst has been satisfied. For today.