Worth the Hike: Hiking at the Historic Fort Flagler
Images by James Fields
I was looking for a hike that would have some great sights and be more pleasurable if our intense rainy season decided to dump water on us during our adventure, and I was excited to find that we have several old forts nearby. My theory was that if it really started to just pour, we could hop into one of the historical buildings and wait it out for a bit.
Looking around, I discovered there are two on Whidbey Island (Fort Ebey and Fort Casey and two across the sound surrounding Port Townsend (Fort Worden and Fort Flagler). As I’ve done only a few hikes out on the peninsula, I thought this would be a fun opportunity to change that and so I opted to hike Fort Flagler.
So I got a couple buddies together and we made our way across the Sound using the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry and drove down and around until we eventually ended up at Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island.
We parked at the first parking lot we found, which was right in front of some large buried buildings with pictures and descriptions telling us this is where some huge mortars used to be. It was surreal to be looking in these old fort buildings with massively thick walls that just a hundred years ago would have housed thousands of soldiers ready for war.
After a bit, we made our way down the West Searchlight trail and came to another old building that was used to house a searchlight to find enemy craft on the water and then radio coordinates back to the mortars if necessary.
From here, we could look across the bay at Port Townsend, and we could look down and see a beautiful beach below us. I couldn’t help but think that the soldiers that worked at this fort so many years ago, must have had a lot of fun down at that beach on their off hours. Nor could I stop myself from thinking about how much fun it would be to revisit this place in summer and take full advantage of that beach.
After taking it in, we made our way down bluff trail, stopping at multiple points to look at other old buildings: Searchlights and various gun and mortar buildings.
Towards the end of Bluff trail we found one of the largest intact buildings with multiple gun positions, several levels of underground rooms to explore, and a whole lot of character.
On the way back to the car, we spotted several families of deer grazing in the afternoon on the wide open fields. We stopped and enjoyed the sight and look at more old buildings.
All of this was about 2.5 - 3 miles of hiking. For those looking for more, there are over 5 miles of trails and some very long beaches that could be used to extend the hike even more. This was a fun and informative hike, and one I’m sure I’ll go back for again!
Fort Flagler
James works for a local Everett-based company and enjoys board games, hiking, and food. You can find him playing Kubb at a local park or getting lost in the woods.
