Hawley Cove Park

Today we did something I've been meaning to do for a long time...explore the parks on Bainbridge Island that we've never been to. We'll try to visit a few each week and hopefully by the end of the summer, we'll hit them all.

We started with Hawley Cove Park. I knew where it was, kind of, so we drove down Hawley Way off of Ferncliff until the road ended and turned into a gravel driveway. It must be down here, I thought, Hawley Park...Hawley Way, makes sense, right? We continued on and indeed came to a small pull-out with a very hidden "Bainbridge Island Open Space" and "Trail Head" sign. Hmmm....not quite the park entrance I imagined. My dad is on the Park Board, and I remember him telling us there was a grand opening for the park recently and that the trail was nicely done with a boardwalk. Oh well, I thought, this must be it. So we pressed on through the slightly visible trail in the tall grass.

A short walk through the tall grass led to the beach, with a bit of a climb over driftwood first.


What a great view of the ferry!

We walked down the beach a way, past a pretty wetlands area and some lovely nature creations.
Fortunately it was low tide. I imagine the water comes all the way up to the driftwood at high tide.

And then we found the REAL trail! It is indeed a boardwalk part of the way and a wide, bark trail the rest.

We walked up the trail and found the REAL entrance to the park. It's at the intersection of Wing Point and Azalea, in case anyone is interested.

Coming back down, Jillian took a picture of this tree that she said looks like it had arms.

And I enjoyed this view of the ferry through the cat tails.

Kylie, Jillian and Ben played in the sand while Nathan read snippets from "The Princess Bride" to me and we watched the ferry depart.

A nice way to spend a few hours on the first offical day of summer vacation!