August 9, 2016
Ebey’s Landing National Historic Reserve, Coopeville, WA to North Cascades National Park to Olympic National Park, WA
Ebey’s Landing had historically been an area of small farms located on Whidbey Island. In the 1970s a new housing development was proposed for the area. The local farmers shouted “NIMBY (not in my back yard)” and joined forces with the National Park Service, the Washington State Parks, the county government and the town of Coupeville to limit growth and preserve the area as a farming community. In doing so, the farmers were entitled to a generous tax credit in exchange for a permanent restriction against development placed on their land deeds. There were a few old homes and farm buildings there, most all of which were privately owned and not available for touring. We did look at a couple fields, and then it was time to move on to North Cascades National Park.
Took a car ferry which onto Whidbey Island and the northwestern corner of the state. I only know of Whidbey Island as it was the setting for some books I have read.
North Cascades National Park was another mountainous glacier park. It was rather cloudy during my visit, so even to tops of the mountain weren’t visible. The western side of the mountain range is wet, like much of Washington State. However, the east side of the ridge is dry, so there is a wide variety of plant life to go along with the wildlife, including bears, goats, mountain lions, eagles, salmon. I saw none.
Olympic National Park, in the Northwestern corner of Washington, looked much the same as the North Cascades...glacier peaks covered by clouds. Spent the night in a campground near Olympic. It was a long day with lots of miles covered.
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