Fort Ward Park
Bainbridge Island, WA
Fort Ward Park is a 137-acre former military installation on Bainbridge Island's Rich Passage, with 4,300 feet of saltwater shoreline and a paved lower trail running alongside the beach. Historic gun battery remnants sit above the water, and a designated underwater park makes this a real scuba diving destination as well as a beach.
Real, well documented, and distinctive for both the military history and the scuba diving angle, a genuine two-in-one destination.
How we score beachesThe designated underwater park draws local divers specifically, so if scuba is the goal, this is one of the more legitimate options on the island.
A paved lower trail parallels the beach, easier than most of the island's rockier shoreline access.
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