Built for bicycle and hiking recreation, the trail runs 6.6 miles (10.6 km)[1][2][3] between Fairhaven and Larrabee State Park in the Bellingham area.

Additional access includes North Chuckanut Mountain Trailhead, Hiline Road, Fragrance Lake Trailhead, and Clayton Beach Trailhead.

The trail follows the shoreline of the Salish Sea and Puget Sound, with views of Bellingham Bay, the Lummi Peninsula, Portage Island, Lummi Island, Chuckanut Bay and the distant San Juan Islands.

[5] The trail is constructed on the bed of the old Bellingham & Skagit Interurban Railway, an electric railway line that connected Whatcom County and Skagit counties from 1912 to 1930.

A northern trail section 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.