About 20 from the Kingston ferry landing is the Hood Canal. I won’t go into the geography or history of the landmark, but will mention that it houses the third longest floating bridge in the world. Numbers 1, 2 and 5 just happen to span Lake Washington, which is just to the east of our house.
Spanning the Kitsap Peninsula and the Olympic Peninsula, the Hood Canal is quite a scary place during a wind storm. At one point the bridge partially sank as a result of a wind storm in 1979. Interestingly, the Hood Canal is also not actually a canal, but more of a fjord. Hood Fjord just doesn’t have any sort of ring to it apparently. The Hood Canal is not man-made, nor does it connect two separate bodies of water.
Getting off the Kitsap Peninsula and on to the Olympic Peninsula proper, we travelled up about 15-20 more miles towards Port Townsend. Then we turned right, and grossed yet another bridge, this time to Marrowstone Island. Instead of heading to Fort Worden like we had originally planned, we went to Fort Flagler, and were very glad we did.
Established well over a hundred years ago, there are three forts that guard the entrance to Puget Sound from potential naval threats. These were, of course, upgraded as World War II both approached as got underway for the United States. Fort Flagler isn’t the most visited of the three, but is perhaps the largest in terms of size. It also happens to be the one neither Laura or myself had been to, so we decided that this would make a great stop.
We arrived at Fort Flagler a little before noon, and explored one of the batteries on one end then had lunch. Initially we were going check out just this one area, which had enough to satisfy the kids. There were two really big guns and the bunker they were housed in was interesting. After spending some time with a couple of large caliber guns and their housings, it was hard to sit and have peanut butter sandwiches and juice boxes. The picnic bench was right there, so we had our lunch with the big guns in the background.
Upon entering Fort Flagler, there are three roads to take. One to the left leads to a camping area, the middle road to the main section with most of the buildings, and the road to the right leads to the section we visited. We decided to check out the main area for a little bit before heading out.
Entering this main section of the decommissioned military base, one is greeted with a massive anti-aircraft gun. Ciárán flipped out, nearly jumping out of his skin. Sure, August and Déla were eager to see this, as was I (and to a lesser extent Laura) but this little guy was going nuts.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
We checked out the visitor’s center and museum, which is rather small, but interesting. Then it was time to leave. But we didn’t. Instead, more on Laura’s insistence, we decided to stay a bit and explore some more. I’m glad we did. A little bit of a walk in, we found another bunker with a large gun emplacement and what felt like a maze of rooms underneath. A little bit of a walk further on was a battery of similar structures. These are amazing things with two levels two explore, one at ground level where the guns were housed, as well as lookout points, but also underneath where ammunition and other equipment were housed.
While we were there nobody else was around, so we had the whole area to ourselves. This was great because the kids could be as loud and excited as they wanted to.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Having spent more time at Fort Flagler than initially planned, we finally left close to 2pm. It was difficult to leave because the place was so interesting and full of history, but we had to get to Port Angles and check in to our hotel. I can’t recommend Fort Flagler enough. It’s a bit out of the way, but well worth the time and effort it takes to get there.
.
.