The sound of heavy surf. and nothing else. Waves roll on in then wash back out then another and another And they follow each other in a never-ending dance breaking on in washing back out and there is no other sound to be heard. Hiking from Hastie Lake Beach to West Beach County Park gives a two and a half mile walk each way. It’s a walk like no where else on Whidbey. Once you get past the handful of houses intruding into the shoreline next to the parking area, you enter a remote seashore with a waterline that faces Japan to the west and bluffs two hundred feet high to the east. You have entered a beach world separate from the rest of the island, isolated and alone and close to the wild heart of Whidbey. The first half mile is a challenge to walk. The beach is made of rocks; it’s like walking on a field of flat soccer balls. The concrete-colored bluff composed of glacial till rises straight up here. Rounding the first point to the north, the bluff changes to a softer texture with a blanket of grasses and trees. The beach, too, begins to change, the rocks becoming more of a gravel mixture, easier to negotiate. Further on, the bluff changes again, becoming clean layers of clay. Chunks break out from time to time, tumbling to lie at the bottom until washed away. The beach becomes pebbles and sand. Then the bluff changes dramatically into castles of sand, eroded into canyons and pillars that sometimes spill and slip and slough down the bank. Here the beach changes into a hard-packed sandy strand that beckons you to remove your shoes and hike barefoot along the water’s edge. This sand continues almost all the way to West Beach, where the bluff morphs back into glacial till and the walking again becomes a cobbled challenge. Time your hike to fit the weather and tides. Any tide of only 4 feet or higher will make the initial rip-rap wall at the Hastie Lake parking area nearly impossible to get past without becoming a bouldering expert. And for the entire stretch, make sure you aren’t trapped by a very high tide, or you may find yourself between the bluff and the deep blue sea with no beach to walk on. I had started at West Beach on a medium high tide the evening before, but a fresh sandy landslide a half-mile down buried the beach down to the water’s edge, blocking me from going any farther. I rose early the next day to start at the Hastie Lake side to be ahead of a rising tide. So did a heavy fog, dampening the day, softening the skyline, and muting all sounds of civilization. Throughout the hike I heard very little other than the constant rhythm of the surf, following me my entire way. An eagle watched me from above; a hawk circled the trees elsewhere. Pigeon guillemots played musical chairs on a rock offshore. And gulls did their best to create some murmurations, but those broke down into individual dancing and flying and circling and resting again. I turned around when I got to the landslide from the day before. Waves had cut through most of it already, spreading it out across the beach. The fog began to rise as I walked back. This seashore is alive, removed from the rest of Whidbey, remote and relaxed, a world apart. As I drove home, long after the sound of the surf had faded, the memory of my walk on the wild west side of Whidbey remained within. This beach makes me feel this way every time. And the dance never gets old. “To sit in silence at the shore, watch the waves and hear the surf, is to appreciate the very breath and heartbeat of the earth.” – Doe Zantamata jack Directions: from Highway 20, 4.4 miles south of Oak Harbor or 6.4 miles north of Coupeville, turn north onto Hastie Lake Road and drive to Hastie Lake Beach Park just off West Beach Road.
Transit: West Beach Road is served by Route 6. Contact Island Transit for locations and times. Bicycle access: The roads getting to West Beach Road from Highway 20 can be narrow and hilly, but traffic relatively light. Accessibility: The beach is very challenging to walk on at both ends. The parking areas offer good views of the beach and the strait.
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Maribeth Crandell has been a hiking guide in the Pacific NW for over 20 years. She's lived on Whidbey and Fidalgo Island for decades. As a frequent bus rider she easily makes connections between trails and transit. Archives by date
April 2024
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