West Penn Cove

West Penn Cove (formerly known as North Penn Cove) is located at the base of Penn Cove on Whidbey Island. It is a relatively long beach, consisting of 4,376 feet of public shoreline. Uplands south and east of the Madrona Road access (heading toward Coupeville) are private property. This beach features a variety of substrate types. The west end beach has a wide productive gravel-mud clam band, which narrows at points and widens in embayments. There is good digging for butter clams, native littleneck clams, Manila clams, cockles and horse clams. The area below the north access trail is particularly good digging. The littleneck clams tend to be higher on the beach while the butter and horse clams are lower in the tidal zone. This is an excellent site for harvesting mussels, primarily near the south access.