Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
www.whidbey.com/wine). The winery is open April through October on Saturday
and Sunday from 11am to 5pm. To reach the winery from Greenbank Farm, drive
south on Wash. 525 and then take Bakken Road west to Day Road.
Also in Greenbank (just off Wash. 525) is
Meerkerk Rhododendron Gar-
dens,
3531 Meerkerk Lane (
&
360/678-1912;
www.meerkerkgardens.org),
which was originally a private garden but is now operated by the Seattle Rhodo-
dendron Society as a display and test garden. It's open daily from 9am to 4pm
(peak bloom is Apr-May). Admission is $3.
Coupeville,
located in central Whidbey Island just north of the turnoff for
the ferry to Port Townsend, is another historic waterfront village. This town was
founded in 1852 by Capt. Thomas Coupe, and the captain's 1853 home is
among those in town that have been restored. The quiet charm of yesteryear is
Coupeville's greatest appeal, and many of its old wooden commercial buildings
now house antiques stores. At the north end of downtown, a gravel path leads
up a bluff to the Coupeville Town Park, which is a good spot for a picnic. At the
end of the Coupeville Wharf, you can see the skeleton of Rosie the gray whale,
which hangs from the ceiling of the building at the end of the wharf.
In Coupeville you'll find the
Island County Historical Museum,
908 NW
Alexander St. (
&
360/678-3310;
www.islandhistory.org), which is the best place
to learn about the island's seafaring, farming, and military history. Between May
and September, the museum is open Wednesday through Monday from 10am to
5pm; October through April, it's open Friday through Monday from 10am to
4pm. Admission is $3 for adults, and $2 for seniors and children under 18.
Much of the land around Coupeville is now part of the
Ebey's Landing
National Historic Reserve.
The reserve, one of the first of its kind in the
nation, was created “to preserve and protect a rural community which provides
an unbroken historic record from the nineteenth century exploration and set-
tlement of Puget Sound to the present time.” There is no visitor center for the
reserve, but there is an information kiosk near the dock in Coupeville, and the
adjacent museum has copies of an informative brochure about the reserve as well
as a brochure that outlines a driving and bicycling tour of the preserve.
Three miles south of Coupeville, adjacent to the Keystone ferry landing, is
Fort
Casey State Park,
1280 Engle Rd. (
&
360/678-4519
), a former military base
that was built in the 1890s to guard Puget Sound; it still has its gun batteries. In
addition to the fort, the park includes beaches, hiking trails, a campground, and
the 1897
Admiralty Head lighthouse,
which is now an interpretive center that is
open daily from 11am to 5pm in summer. Just south of Fort Casey State Park near
the Keystone Ferry landing (Port Townsend ferries) is
Keystone State Park,
which
is a designated underwater park for scuba divers. A few miles north of Fort Casey
is the smaller
Fort Ebey State Park,
Libbey Road (
&
360/678-4636
), another
former military site built to protect the sound. Here there are excellent views of
the Strait of Juan de Fuca, as well as a campground, hiking and mountain biking
trails, and a lake for swimming and fishing.
Oak Harbor,
at the north end of the island, was settled by Dutch immi-
grants, and here, at City Beach Park, which has a swimming lagoon, you'll find
a large Dutch
windmill.
As the largest town on the island, Oak Harbor lacks
the charm of Langley and Coupeville. At
Joseph Whidbey State Park,
west of
Oak Harbor, there are great westerly views and a long sandy beach.
Deception Pass State Park
(
&
360/675-2417
), at the northern tip of the
island, is the most popular state park in Washington. What draws the crowds are
miles of beaches, quiet coves, freshwater lakes, dark forests, hiking trails, camping,
