The downside of living on an island (or any water front) is that public access to beaches can be hard to come by. If one isn’t so picky about where they find the access, then you can have a glorious beach nearly to yourself I have found. Bush Point is a good example on the south end of Whidbey Island. It’s only a few miles from our home (literally a ridge away). While not a big “park” it boasts an excellent paved parking lot (free to park in), public toilets, handicap parking right on the beach and yes, access to the sand. It’s a boat launch, but also has a nice beach.
For the address, see here. Make sure you don’t turn into the old B&B on the corner. It can be very confusing, and while the place isn’t being used as a hotel currently, the owner comes out and gets upset at people who might accidentally park in their (large) parking lot that sits empty. I wish they would put up tape or signs so it is obvious it isn’t a street/public parking, but well….that is up to them!
While the beach for the county is only 45 feet long (yes, seriously), you can continue to walk the beach. Just stay out of high tide area, and don’t be noisy. It’s fine to walk the beach (even though the property owners have multiple signs, in big font, to tell beach walkers to go away, if you read at the bottom in tiny print it states you can walk it. Ironically, this section is only a short bit, then it heads toward South Whidbey State Park, and a lot farther north-west, is Lagoon Point.
Looking across the water to the Olympic Mountains above the mainland.
All the boys came along, with the two youngest having fun building sand castles and looking for treasures.
The sand is not what one thinks of as sand, once you get down low to it. Tiny, polished rocks really. I’d not trade that for fine, white sand personally. I much prefer the cold, rugged beaches of Washington State over warmer states.
The view up the island is the beach curving to Lagoon Point. In the far distance, the bluff leads to Ebey’s Landing and where the island turns at Fort Ebey. The distinctive “V” notch in the bluff was visible to my eyes. Had I had the binoculars with me, I might have also been able to see the Coupeville Ferry, that runs to Port Townsend on the mainland, across the strait.
And to watch a sailboat go by, with the Olympic Mountains in the distance. That is a good day.
~Sarah