South Whidbey State Park, 2022

 

 

 

 

 

South Whidbey State Park

 

Following the visit to the Meerkerk Gardens we decided to stop at the Greenbank Farm to pick up some cheese and then on to South Whidbey State Park for a short hike. 

 

 

The Greenbank Farm was established in 1904.  There are several small shops, a café where one can get things like a sandwich with or without soup, a delicious piece of pie with ice cream, soft drinks, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and cookies.  There is also a small public garden.

 

Most of the shops and an art gallery are housed in this long building

 

The cheese shop.  Often they have things that other places do not carry.  The shop is family owned and will order imported cheese for regular customers. 

A beautiful, blue sky, puffy white cloud day

 

Once at the State Park we had choices, to go down and up the steep trail from the cliff to the beach or one of two other loop trails through the forest, a longer, steeper ridge loop, and the shorter lower loop.  We opted for the lower trail through the woods.    

 

The park has two parking lots, a camping area and a restroom with flush toilets near the trail that goes down to the beach.  There is also an outhouse privy in the upper parking lot near the entrance to the forest trails. 

 

 

 

Placard in the trailhead parking lot explaining how the trees were saved from logging

 

The wide trail has lots of large trees on either side

 

Bob demonstrates the size of some of the trees

 

 

These trees were saved from logging by a group community protest in 1977.  There is an information placard at the parking lot about the protest and the results.  Along the trail there are signs explaining how the forest works and grows and what plants, trees, and animals live in the forest.  The trail is an up and down and has some mud at this time of year. 

 

 

Fringe cup

Miner's lettuce

 

 

Elderberry

 

 

Skunk Cabbage

 

 

A small pond with horse tails and skunk cabbage

 A rare "dinosaur" sighting of the day found in the park parking lot.  A public phone booth.  This relic from before the mobile phone era works and is needed here because the island has areas where there is no cell service. 

 

5 hikers and one dog.