Interurban Trail (Whatcom County)

The Interurban Trail is a rail trail in Whatcom County, Washington. It runs 6.6 miles (10.6 km)[1][2][3] between Fairhaven (10th St. and Donovan Ave., 48°43′03″N 122°30′16″W) and Larrabee State Park (48°38′52″N 122°29′12″W) in the Bellingham area.[4] Popular with hikers and bicycles, the trail runs parallel to Chuckanut Drive through the Chuckanut Mountains. The trail follows the shoreline of the Salish Sea and Puget Sound, with ample views of Bellingham Bay, the Lummi Peninsula, Portage Island, Lummi Island, Chuckanut Bay and the distant San Juan Islands.[5]

The trail can be accessed in the north in downtown Fairhaven, connecting to Boulevard Park and downtown Bellingham to Fairhaven Park, Arroyo Park, and Teddy Bear Cove Park for foot and bicycle traffic. Additional access includes North Chuckanut Mountain Trailhead, Hiline Road, Fragrance Lake Trailhead, and Clayton Beach Trailhead.

To reach the Rotary trailhead (Fairhaven), take I-5 to Exit 250, and travel west on Old Fairhaven Parkway/SR 11. Look for the Rotary trailhead on the left in approximately 0.9 mile, just past 20th Street. (The Fairhaven endpoint is 0.6 mile west on the trail.)

The trail is constructed on the bed of the old Bellingham & Skagit Interurban Railway, an electric railway line that connected Whatcom and Skagit counties from 1912 to 1930. Another trail section in the north follows the rail bed of the Fairhaven & Southern Railroad that ran coal trains to and from Sedro-Woolley in the late 1800s through the turn of the 19th century.[6]

References
  1. "Interurban Trail" (PDF). City of Bellingham.
  2. "Interurban, Blanchard Forest, and Chuckanut Mtn Trail Systems WA DNR PDF Map". Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  3. "Interurban Trail Map". Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  4. "Interurban Trail". Whatcom County Parks & Rec. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  5. Berry, Glen. "Interurban Trail". kulshan.com. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  6. Dougherty, Phil (7 July 2014). "Bellingham and Skagit Interurban Railway". HistoryLink.org Essay 10904. HistoryLink.org. Retrieved 9 May 2017.


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