Craft Island — Local services in Washington

I did not enjoy this hike at all. Mostly because it's so poorly defined that navigating to the right trail, for someone who's unfamiliar, is awful.

We drove down, parked at the end of Rawlins Rd., and walked up a slight hill where a billboard sits with some information about the area. There is no map for where to go on this board. You can either go to the left, parallel to the farming adjacent to the area until it makes a right and you head over a small bridge in the direction you think you'd get to the beach (spoiler alert: you cannot). Or, you can go down the other side of the hill and follow a loose trail. We decided to start by going left. The small bridge seemed to indicate it was the "right" way.

We hiked out quite a ways until the trail became so muddy we were ankle deep. Eventually the trail just disappeared. We could see the beach, but we couldn't get to it without swimming in mud. There was no signage to tell you this was not the way. We even passed some people coming back from that direction who said nothing. It was a spectacular waste of time, so we doubled back to take the other trail.

When we got on the other trail, we passed some kind folks and asked if we were going the right way and they said yes...the trail is just very windy, but it will eventually get to the beach. GREAT! Except about 1/3rd of the way down the trail it split into two very different directions. We opted to go left (we should have known better) and it came to a drop off with no clear way to cross it. So, again, we doubled back and took the other trail.

We finally reach the little hill of trees and were a little sad to discover you can't really get out onto the beach very easily. We had our dog in toe and so we really just stopped at the end of the trail and admired the beach before turning around and heading back.

All in all we spent about 2.5 hours walking miles in the mud for very little pay off at the end. Washington has MUCH better hiking trails and certainly better beach offerings than this sad excuse for a hike. If you go...just remember to always choose the trail to the right. But don't expect the end result to be too spectacular. Don't get me wrong...it's pretty, because it's the beach, but it's also a very long, muddy walk. 2/10, would not recommend or do it...

Craft Island is a bedrock knob that provides a spectacular bird's eye view of deltaic sedimentary processes and tidal wetland hydraulics/hydrology on the Skagit River.  Plus there are native plants, flowers, schooling fish fry, eagles, and many other birds.  Thank you conservation community for preserving this special classroom /habitat for wildlife.  It is part of the Skagit Wildlife Area managed by the WDFW. The trail, island, and delta trip was one of the best experiential learning opportunities I have had to date with my daughter. I recommend, to time your visit.  Head out on an ebbing tide to watch and explore the delta sand bars, eddy's, driftwood, and the habitat they create.  The mile-long walk from Rawlings Rd crosses an estuarine wetland with feeder channels, frogs, water striders, and birds galore.  Rubber boots or a willingness to get your feet muddy and wet is likely, except in late summer. In May the flowers and shrubs begin to bloom on the rocky island.  At high tide, you will be confined to the island and the two trails that wind up 80ft to the bald 360-degree view at the top.  The matrix-supported conglomerate bedrock is even interesting to look at and climb around on. At low tide, you can walk miles on the sandy bars. On sunny and still days the shallow off-channel pools on the delta can warm up enough to dawn swim trunks and make you want to build drip castles.

FYI: Landward of the wetland trail is an impressive raft of driftwood logs and root wads.  It will make you wish you could have seen the unique confluence of conditions that transpired to float and push the large woody debris stranded on the delta...

Although there were several cars at the WDFW Parking, this is probably a hidden gem to most. It's about a mile slog through tidal land but a real cool little hill at the edge of the sea. High enough to provide a 360 degree view of the flat lands and Whidbey island across the channel. I've seen eagles,...