Fort Worden State Park

Fort Worden State Park occupies the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Port Townsend, extending north to Point Wilson at the entrance to Admiralty Inlet. The sanctioned dive entry sits at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center wharf, where pilings coated in plumose anemones drop to a shell-hash bottom. About 200 yards down the beach from the Kitchen Shelter, a white buoy marks a 1970s artificial reef sitting in roughly 25 feet of water, built from tires roped together and heavier concrete forms.

The park preserves a former coastal-defense installation and now houses the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, with a natural history museum and aquarium at the wharf. Point Wilson Lighthouse rises at the northern tip, reached through the park though the lighthouse itself sits on non-state land. The artificial reef off the Kitchen Shelter is a documented 1970s Puget Sound artificial-habitat project.

Two biomes overlap within the sanctioned entry. A rocky reef biome takes shape around the wharf pilings and the offshore artificial reef, with plumose anemones sheeting the pilings and shell hash filling the ground between the concrete forms. Above and around the same structure, a kelp forest biome develops in the shallower water. Giant Pacific octopus and wolf eels have both been documented here, and both are protected from take under Washington regulation. Scuba and snorkeling are the site's two activities, and divers who drift with the current can shelter under the wharf until conditions settle.

A Discover Pass is required for parking, at $10 per day or $45 per year, and restrooms with showers stand near both campgrounds. Summer hours run from 6:30 a.m. to dusk; winter hours start at 8 a.m. Currents change frequently along this stretch of Admiralty Inlet, and slack-tide diving is the standing recommendation. No marine protected area covers Fort Worden. Under WDFW Marine Area 6 rules, rockfish retention is prohibited and lingcod spearfishing is enforced within a May 21 through June 15 window.