Montgomery-Duban Headlands Park (Sares Bluff)

This park is an overlooked gem. While many visitors to Fidalgo Island flock to Deception Pass State Park a few miles away, Sharpe Park/Montgomery-Duban Headlands Park is less trafficked and offers a rival experience. A fabulous network of walking trails wind and twist through mature Douglas-fir, madrone, and western red cedar forest with rich understories of sword fern, oceanspray, mossy carpets, stone outcrops, and salal. Several of the trails skirt the bluff’s edge, offering sweeping views of Rosario Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Animal life is abundant here. Look for woodpeckers, owls, forest passerines, mergansers, oystercatchers and harlequin ducks, river otters, rough-skinned newts, and deer. Eagles and hawks coast on rising air from the water and, below, porpoises can often be seen in pods cruising the shoreline.

Learn about the history of this preserve