Itinerary
The Wild North End
The oldest lighthouse on Puget Sound, a beach where the shipping lanes come close, and a preserve worth timing to the tide.
- 9:20 AM
Stock up before you go north
Grocery Outlet and the Kingston Center shops are your last full supermarket. Past Kingston the services thin out fast — Hansville has one grocery and not much else — so get water, snacks and a full tank now.
Map ↗ - 10:00 AM
Point No Point County Park
About twenty minutes and ten miles north. A wide sandy beach piled with driftwood, right where the shipping lanes swing close — freighters, seals, and on a good day whales. Read this before you drive up: Kitsap County's own two pages disagree. The park page says the park has reopened after shoreline restoration, while the county's Parks FAQ says the main lot "remains closed due to the significant damage caused by the past winter storms" with the park open to pedestrians. That same FAQ points to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife lot on Point No Point Road, open for the summer season and needing a Discover Pass. Park there and you're fine either way; ring Kitsap Parks on (360) 337-5350 if you want it settled first.
Map ↗ - 11:15 AM
Point No Point Lighthouse
Built in 1879 and first lit in 1880, which makes it the oldest lighthouse on Puget Sound. It is a short square tower — about thirty feet — rather than the tall column people expect, and it is all the more charming for it. Volunteer docents open it for tours on Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4, April through September. Outside those months and days you are admiring it from the grounds, which is still worth the drive.
Map ↗ - 12:00 PM
About that second lighthouse on the map
You may spot Skunk Bay Lighthouse a few miles up the shore and wonder why nobody mentions it. It is private — built in 1964 by a former keeper, now held by a small association of owners who ask visitors not to come up to it. Admire it from the water or from a distance, and leave the residents alone. Point No Point is the one you can walk into.
Map ↗ - 12:30 PM
Lunch at Hansville Grocery & Hansgrill
The only real kitchen in the village, on Twin Spits Road, open daily — breakfast until about 11:15, then lunch and dinner through the afternoon. It is a grocery and a grill in one building, and on a weekday it is mostly locals.
Map ↗ - 1:45 PM
Foulweather Bluff Preserve — check the tide first
A hundred acres of forest and marsh belonging to The Nature Conservancy, with about a mile of walking round trip — a short half-mile through the trees each way — out to nearly 3,800 feet of beach. Free, daylight hours, no pass. Two hard rules: no dogs at all, service animals excepted, because the intertidal is what the preserve exists to protect; and parking is roadside on Twin Spits Road with space for perhaps seven to ten cars, so arrive early on a sunny weekend. Come at low tide or you will miss the point of it.
Map ↗ - 3:15 PM
Buck Lake and the Hansville Greenway
Buck Lake County Park is open 8 to 5, with a playground, ball field and courts, and a swimming area with life-jacket kiosks you can borrow from. It is also the main trailhead for the Hansville Greenway, about nine and a half miles of trail in total; the signature loop is 2.6 miles, easy, roughly a hundred feet of climb, and fine for leashed dogs. Note the park restrooms close annually from October 1 through March 31.
Map ↗ - 5:00 PM
A pint back in Kingston
Friends and Neighbors Brewing took over the old Downpour building on Highway 104 and pours a wall of rotating taps, dogs and kids welcome. Doors at 2 PM on Saturday and Sunday and 4 PM midweek. Mondays are the one to check — they have been dark on Mondays through this summer, with the night due back in September.
Map ↗ - 6:15 PM
The boat home
Check the Ferry page before you join the queue. Summer evenings eastbound can back up, and if the boarding-pass system is running you will pick up a ticket near Lindvog Road before the tollbooth — which usually buys you time to walk back for food.
Map ↗
Before you head back
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