Ebey's Landing State Park and National Historic Reserve Trails

Ebey's Landing State Park and National Historic Reserve Trails

Ebey's Landing is one of the most spectacular and historically significant locations anywhere on Puget Sound. Reminiscent of the golden hills above San Francisco Bay, the high bluffs provide sweeping views of the water from the Olympic Peninsula to Vancouver Island. Bald eagles perch in the trees overhead. And the long stretch of driftwoodstrewn shoreline around Perego’s Lagoon is any beachcomber’s dream. Isaac Ebey landed on the western side of Whidbey Island in 1850, drawn by a geographically unusual grassland he found just north of Admiralty Head. (Unfortunately, he was beheaded some years later by members of the Haida tribe as a result of an ongoing dispute.) The open prairie did not have to be cleared of trees for development, a particularly valuable commodity among the dense virgin forests of the Pacific Northwest, making it the perfect place for a farm. A century and a half later, the property is mostly unchanged, with the open fields still in use for agriculture and the beaches below retaining much of their original wild and untouched state. And visitors can expect to leave with great memories and photographs. Ebeys Landing was established in 1978 as the first U.S. National Historic Reserve, and even from the access road it’s easy to see why the government thought the area was worth preserving. Apart from its considerable historic value as one of the oldest settlements in Washington State, the beauty of the natural surroundings is obvious in the steep headlands that stretch up and down the coast.

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