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Seattle is rich with day and weekend trips within a short driving distance. None I would rank more highly than the San Juan Islands. These magical, gorgeous and historic islands are just an 1.5 hour drive and a 1 hour ferry ride away from downtown Seattle. The San Juan Island archipelago is made up of 172 named islands, but only four are accessible by the Washington Ferry system. These four are San Juan, Orcas, Lopez and Shaw. One of the best parts about visiting the San Juan islands is you can visit again and again and go to new islands and enjoy new experiences. If you are visiting for less than a week, I would recommend making one island your home base and doing a day trip or two to one of the other islands. In this itinerary, we stayed on San Juan island a bit outside of Friday Harbor and did a day trip to Orcas Island.

View of the San Juan Islands from Mount Constitution on Orcas Island

San Juan Island Basics

The San Juan Islands are a group of islands in Northwestern Washington. These islands are closer to Canada, namely Victoria on Vancouver Island than Seattle. While there is 172 named islands and reefs, there are over 743 islands or rocks in the archipelago. Many of which can disappear at high tide. Only about 20 of these are considered inhabited, but the vast majority of the population exists on the 4 primary islands: San Juan, Orcas, Lopez and Shaw. San Juan Island is the most populated and is the site of the county seat. San Juan’s main city is called Friday Harbor - to not confuse visitors, the ferry schedules often refer to this island destination as Friday Harbor. The next most populated island is Orcas, which is also the largest of the San Juan Islands. It also has the highest point (2,409ft at Mount Constitution) and the largest State Park. Year-round, Orcas Island only has about 6,000 residents compared to San Juan’s 9,000. Lopez Island is known as the friendly island and is a great place to visit for a more peaceful and slow-paced retreat. It is considered one of the best islands for biking because of its gentle rolling hills. It also has beautiful beaches to spot wildlife or to kayak from. Shaw island is the smallest of the four and is known for its more rural atmosphere and untouched nature. If you are looking for amenities, Shaw Island is not the place for you as there are no restaurants or really any shops other than one General Store.

How to reach the San Juan Islands

You can reach the San Juan Islands via the Washington State Ferry System, a seaplane (Kenmore Air), small plane to one of the small airstrips on the islands, or a private boat.

The most economical way to get there is via a ferry which departs from Anacortes, WA. These ferries are one of the only ferries in the system that require a reservation. The schedule can be a bit confusing to understand when you first look at it, but it helps to know that typically the ferry leaves Anacortes and visits either all of the islands or some of them before heading back to Anacortes. Some ferries are just interisland ferries and some of the ferries that return back to Anacortes load inter island cars/passengers. Some go counterclockwise and other go clockwise. Some sailings are only on certain days. The best way to understand the options is to go through the process of reserving your ferry route. Reservations for spring sailings open mid-February. 30% of the spots on the ferries are released on that day, another 30% are released two weeks before hand, and another 30% are released two days prior. The final 10% is left for people that show up day of. It is highly highly recommended that you get a ferry reservation in advance and make sure you show up at the ferry terminal within the time they say on your confirmation email. For this itinerary, you will need a car. Make sure when you make your ferry reservation, that you also make your reservation for your ferry ride back to Anacortes at the end of your trip. People do get stuck on the island and have to extend their trip.

For more information about kids and the Washington State Ferries, visit our posts:

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There are a few must do things when visiting Seattle and getting out on the water is one of the top. My favorite way to explore the Puget sound is on one of the Washington State Ferries. They are a relatively affordable way to get great views of the city and mountains from the water, potentially see marine mammals that call this area home, and get transported to an island. There are dozens of island within the Puget Sound and at least 7 are accessible to the public thanks to ferries

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This itinerary requires a car and if you already have one, I would recommend just taking the ferry. However, if you want to travel to the islands by plane, that is possible by either seaplane or wheeled plane through Kenmore Air. They make daily flights from Seattle’s Lake Union and the total travel time will be less than driving + the ferry. The cost of the flight is typically over 10x the amount of the ferry. The difference is even more if you are bringing kids, since kids typically fly full price on Kenmore Air but are free on the ferry.

Logistics

Grocery stores exist, especially on San Juan and Orcas islands but since most of the food needs to come in on plane or ferry - prices are expensive and selection is limited. Bring food with you if you can. Gas stations are also limited, so make sure you are planning ahead when driving around the islands or island hopping to the more remote islands. Cell service is also spotty, so download the offline maps of the islands before you arrive. Hotels and lodging do book out, even in the spring - so make sure you are booking your lodgings and ferry reservations together.

Why visit in Spring?

The San Juan Islands are worth visiting year-round but the shoulder seasons - spring and fall are my ideal times to visit the islands. The islands are often crowded in the summers but you can do almost all of the same activities in late spring or early fall particularly. While Seattle is known for its wet and gray winters, the San Juan Islands actually get far less rain than Seattle. In spring you can expect mild weather - in the 50s and 60s - with the occasional rain. Wildflowers color the landscape in the spring. Peak whale season begins in April - giving you the chance to see orcas, humpbacks, and gray whales in the spring.

Ferry reservations and hotel or home-stays are easier to secure in the spring months. Places are less busy, it is not unheard of to have beaches to yourself. Less people also typically means easier wildlife viewing. Daytime low tides also start in the spring and there are numerous great beaches to go tide pooling and beaching combing at.

Where to Stay?

For most visitors, I would recommend staying on either San Juan Island or Orcas Island. These islands have the most amenities, accommodation options, and activities. If you are really wanting a getaway, Lopez Island might be a good getaway or just as second island to stay at if you are planning on being in the islands for more than a week. The islands are very easy to hop between, so picking one island as a home base doesn’t mean you are locked into only the things to do on that island. Many people even hop over to other islands just for dinner or a single hike. With kids however, we planned to make the most of our time island hopping and spent a full 8 hours on another island during our trip.

San Juan Island is both large and small in different aspects - there are multiple population centers but the driving distance between them is relatively small. The main city of Friday Harbor is the easiest and most obvious choice. It is walkable from the ferry and has the most restaurants and shops. If you don’t have a car or don’t want to drive much, this is the best option. There are multiple inns in town. Roche Harbor has a completely different feel than the rest of the island and feels like you are stepping into a mini village resort. There are restaurants, it has more of a vacation feel, and there are activities that start from here. It is slightly more expensive to stay here. Elsewhere on the island - either the west side like at Snug Harbor or inland in a farmstay or vrbo. We stayed in a vrbo inland, which was less than 15 minutes away from Friday Harbor. We felt like we were in the middle of nature with all the benefits of being so close to a town to pop in and pick up something that maybe we forgot for dinner. We love staying in VRBOs, with kids especially as it allows us to save money on meals and have more space. We were also lucky during our trip to see the aurora borealis, which we could see clearly right from our front door. If we were to be staying in town, it would not have been as clear and we would have had to take turns driving to a more remote spot in the night while the kids slept.

Orcas Island is also a great island to make as a home base. While we did not stay on this island on this trip, we have in subsequent trips. I would still recommend San Juan Island over Orcas Island as a base because I feel like there are more activities on San Juan, but if you find good accommodations on Orcas it is also a beautiful island worthy of spending a night or more on. The ferry drops you off on Orcas Island at the ferry terminal, far away from main population centers. The biggest town on Orcas is called Eastsound, which is located in the middle of the island. This is a great place to stay if you want to be close to the most restaurants. Other places to stay are at Deer Harbor or Rosario where there are hotels or bed and breakfasts. If you want to camp, you can in Moran State Park.

Itinerary Overview:

Here is our first-timers itinerary for families visiting in the spring. Our kids were 3 & 4 on this trip, but I believe it would be great for families with kids of all ages - or an adults only trip.

Day 1 - Drive to Anacortes from Seattle, explore Anacortes, ferry to Friday Harbor, Lime Kiln Point State Park, get groceries and check into lodging
Day 2 - Downtown Friday Harbor, The Whale Museum, Whale Watching boat tour
Day 3 - Interisland ferry to Orcas Island, Mount Constitution, Moran State Park waterfall hike, low tide at Indian Island
Day 4 - San Juan Island National Historic Park’s English Camp, San Juan Islands Sculpture Park, Roche Harbor, San Juan Island National Historic Park’s American Camp
Day 5 - Alpaca Farm at Krystal Acres, ferry back to Anacortes and drive to Seattle

The rest of this article will detail our trip report for each day. It includes details about each spot and our experience visiting there with our two young kids.

Day 1:

We picked a mid-day ferry reservation so we did not have to worry about waking up early, we could explore some of Anacortes before we got on our ferry to Friday Harbor and because we couldn’t get into our VRBO until the afternoon anyways. Our ferry reservation was at 11:55am and we had to be there 45-60 minutes before that departure time. We ended up getting there right at 11am. We got to Anacortes, just before 10:00am. In Anacortes, we went straight to Cap Sante State Park.

Cap Sante State Park

This park in the northeast corner of Anacortes offers beautiful views of the Salish seas including Fidalgo Bay. You can climb along the rocky headland to get beautiful views of the cascades that include both Mount Baker and Mount Rainier on a clear day. You can watch birds, boats and canoes go by. The views alone are worth it but if you are up for some hiking, there are trails through the park as well. We walked a bit through the forested park from the lookout spot.

After soaking up the views, we headed back in town. We had packed some food for lunch on the ferry and picked up a few extras in Anacortes before we headed to the ferry terminal. The ferry terminal also a coffee shop and some food options.

Anacortes Ferry Terminal

This is one of my favorite ferry terminals due to the beach that sits right next to where the cars for the next ferry wait. You are able to get out of your car and enjoy the beach while waiting for your ferry to arrive. It is a great beach to walk along, look for sea glass or sit and play in the combination of sand and rocks. There are speakers at the terminal that will let you know if the ferry is late or if it is arriving and you need to return to your cars immediately. We also kept track of where our ferry was using the WSDOT app. Our ferry ended up being about 20 minutes late but I have had other ferries that have arrived early and left early. Be sure to be paying attention if you do decide to leave your car.

While on the ferry

The ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor was about 1.5 hours. Our sailing took a bit longer than expected, but for a great reason. Orcas!! I’ve heard stories of people seeing orcas from the ferries, but I’ve heard far more stories from lifelong Washington residents who have never seen an orca from a ferry. While we were aware that it was possible and we definitely commented before our trip how cool it would be, we did not actually expect it to happen. But about half way through our journey, the captain came on and said that we have reduced our speed to abide by the laws around sailing near Orcas! There were about 3 Orcas that stayed within view from our ship for 15 minutes. Seconds after that first announcement, almost everyone that was on the opposite side of the boat from where they were sighted got up to see them. It was an exciting experience for everyone.

Oddly enough, after the first 5 minutes - our kids (3 & 4) lost interest. Which did not bode so well for our 3-hour whale watching trip the next day. They did enjoy all of the toys and activities we had brought with us - more info on that in our article about taking the Washington State ferries with kids.

Even without orcas, sailing through the San Juan Islands is absolutely stunning. This ferry ride alone feels worth the drive up to Anacortes - but so much more beauty is to come.

We got off the ferry and onto the island at about 1:45pm with the slight delay.

Lime Kiln State Park

Our first stop, hoping we’d keep our luck with spotting orcas, was Lime Kiln State Park. This park is often considered to be the very best place to spot orcas from land in the whole world.

To visit Lime Kiln State Park, you will need a Discover Pass ($45 for an annual pass or $10 for a one-day pass). This pass is good for parking at most Washington State Parks - including others that are part of this itinerary. As Washington residents, the annual pass is more than worth it for us. I’d recommend ordering online a few weeks before your trip so you can get the physical pass to hang in your car. However, they also accept a print out if yours does not come in time. There is also a way to buy a day pass once you get there.

This gorgeous park is found on the west end of San Juan Island. This was one of my favorite spots on the island - potential to see whales, a beautiful lighthouse, ocean views, and trails. There is even a beach you can explore with tide pools if you are visiting at low tide. If you are visiting in May - September, there is a small shop that has food, beverages and souvenirs.

There are lots of trails throughout the park, with kids, we focused on the highlights. After parking, we headed straight towards the whale watch site - which is marked on the park map that can be found near the parking lot. We brought snacks and enjoyed an in-between meal snack break on the many picnic tables at the overlook. We unfortunately saw no whales. This was also where I realized how much harder it is to find whales on land than in a dedicated whale watch boat. You see such a wide expanse of the ocean and it is hard to stay focused on all of it enough to see a blow or fins. The easiest sign to spot is the blow, which is a plume of mist that comes out of the water and can last a few seconds. After you see that focus in on that area to see if a whale’s fin comes out. Orcas typically surface for air about every 3 to 5 minutes while they are hunting. They might also be displaying other behaviors and be on the surface more frequently or less. Spotting whales requires a lot of patience, even if you know what you are looking for. There are multiple Facebook groups where users post about sightings - both Seattle area as a whole and San Juan Island specific. If you are really determined to see whales from the shore and save on a whale watching trip - join these groups and check it often while you are on the islands to see if you can head to one of the spots where there is a sighting. They can either be just passing through or be at the same spot for a few hours or more at a time.

After attempting to spot whales, we walked along the coast towards the lighthouse. This is such an iconic Pacific Northwest looking lighthouse and one of the most photographed spots on the island. Unfortunately, the lighthouse and the park’s interpretive center are only open to the public during the summer - between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The lighthouse is open for tours on Thursdays-Sundays from 12-4pm during those dates. There are far more trails to explore, but our crew was getting tired so we left after walking around the lighthouse and going down to the beach nearby.

Friday Harbor

It was nearly time for us to check into our VRBO at this point, so to use up the last bit of time we stopped by the grocery store in Friday Harbor to get food for our trip. Most everything in the San Juan Islands is expensive and even though the groceries were more than what we pay on the mainland, it was far cheaper than eating at restaurants multiple times a day. We also found some restaurants were closed till Memorial Day or had reduced hours. We planned to eat out just once a day. We got our groceries from Kings Market, which had a great selection.

After getting groceries, we went to our VRBO, settled in, had dinner and called it night.

Day 2:

The Whale Museum

The Whale Museum is a small but super informative museum. Admission will cost you $13 for adults and free for kids under 5 or $6 for kids 6-college. The museum is open 10am to 4pm most days. We visited shortly after opening and it was fairly empty. All of us learned so much - both facts about whales and also the state of the orca population in the area. There were real specimens, kids activities, videos, interactive exhibits, and more. There was also a great gift shop where the kids picked out their souvenirs from this trip.

To continue our whale themed day, we had a whale watching trip planned after this. All of the knowledge we learned from the museum really aided in our experience on the whale watch. Before the boat tour, we got lunch in town.

Whale Watching Tour

One thing about me… I love a whale watching tour. I love observing animals in the wild any chance I get. This was my fourth - after doing one in Alaska, Hawaii, and Iceland (click the link to read about our not so great experience in Iceland). There is something so magical seeing whales close. They are huge but so mysterious at the same time. We visited in early May, which was towards the early side of peak whale viewing time but everyone seemed confident we would see whales. We’ve never done a whale watching tour with kids though. I read through a lot of reviews and there were several mixed reviews about how much kids would enjoy it. My kids (3 & 4) love orcas, I thought that passion would outweigh their age and attention spans. Whale watching tours are expensive and even with kids costing less, it was more expensive than all of the other activities we did on the islands combined. We chose a tour that was most kid friendly - the classic whale watch tour which is on a boat where they can get up and move around. Since it was the offseason, we were on a smaller boat that was not at capacity. There was still an inside section with a bench and tables and a bathroom.

My kids enjoyed it and were excited at parts but got bored. The tour is 3 hour and they would have been more content with one that was half that. But all and all they did great. We knew going in that they probably wouldn’t be content looking out at the sea for 3 hours straight like I could have, so I brought activities. Coloring pages, magnetic toys, etc - things that were fine on some mildly rough seas. The boat also had multiple books and figurines that we made use of. Did they get their ticket price worth from the tour - no. But did we, the adults? Yes and more so. I don’t regret going with young kids, even though they did get bored looking for and watching whales.

Each whale watch tour is so different depending on where whales were last spotted. All of the whale watching boats communicate with each other and they have a pretty good understanding of where the whales are on any given day. Some times there is a pod of whales just minutes out of the port, sometimes they are an hour away. Our tour was the later. They knew there were whales just off the coast of Victoria, B.C. and planned to head there unless they heard of any whales closer while were in route. We got on the boat at 12:30pm and spotted our first whale at 1:50pm. We spent the first 20 minutes of this soaking up just the beauty of sailing through the San Juan Islands and the remaining time reading to and doing activities with the kids in the indoor portion. Our kids weren’t disruptive and behaved perfectly, they just remarked several times that they were bored and wanted to go back.

One thing that is really great about whale watching in the Pacific Northwest is that they know pretty much every single Orca that swims in these waters - even ones that only pass through seasonally. The guides on the boat are able to look at their fin and identify them and tell you everything they know about all of the other whales that you will find swimming with them. Orcas travel in matriarchal groups - so grandmas with moms and aunts and babies. We were able to watch 3 different pods from the spot they found near Victoria. It was incredible. We saw whales far away and even got to experience whales swimming under our boat and popping up right next to it. We stayed watching the whales in the area till 2:30, which is when we needed to leave and head back to San Juan so we could make it back in time. On our way back, we went by some islands known to have multiple bald eagle nests and lots of sea lions. We made it back to Friday Harbor a bit past 3:30pm.

One we got back, we enjoyed some ice cream in Friday Harbor.

Aurora Borelias/Northern lights

We lucked out and had a high chance to see northern lights while we were on our trip. We downloaded the app Aurora which gave us the chance hourly over the next few hours. The chance was highest around 1:00am, so we took a short nap, set alarms and went outside at 1:00am. We had read that many times you can’t see the northern lights with your eyes but could see it with a camera. After some trial and error taking long exposure photos on my DSLR, we found that using a phone was simpler for very weak northern lights. The northern lights were just a faint glow when we first went out. We stayed out for longer and suddenly they got a lot more intense. So intense that we could easily see it with our eyes.

With how intense they were, it was a lot easier to take photos with anything we used. We decided that we had to get proof that our kids were there too so we woke them up one at a time to get a photo with them and the lights. One didn’t wake up much at all, even being taken out of bed, taken down the stairs and outside. The other woke up a bit and got to see them a bit before we took her back up to bed. The northern lights chance was supposed to be high again the next night and we had planned to split up to try to get photos of them with a more gorgeous backdrop - like at a beach. But, they ended up not being as bright that night.

Day 3:

Inter-island Ferry to Orcas Island

We are used to needing to arrive early for ferries - especially after how early we had to arrive to the Anacortes ferry terminal two days before. The interisland ferry does not have any reservations - it operates on a first-come first-serve basis. We saw a recommendation saying to arrive to the ferry terminal an hour before your inter-island ferry. We were nervous that we would not secure a spot, so we arrived an hour early per the recommendation. The ferry we wanted to catch was set to leave at 8:30am.. so we got there at 7:30. We picked an early ferry to make the most of Orcas Island. This was after staying up half the night enjoying the northern lights. We packed everything we needed in our backpacks the night before so it would be an easy morning.

Once we got to the terminal, the employee that was guiding cars through the line asked where we were going - once he heard what ferry we wanted to go on, he told us to come back in 45 minutes. We decided to stay in town as it didn’t make sense to drive back to the VRBO to just be there for 15 mins. So we got some extra snacks for breakfast at the grocery store and waited in the car, parked in a spot where we could watch the ferry line just in case they started letting people for our ferry line up. As the employee said, they started letting people line up about 15 minutes before the ferry departed. This was likely due to having a full ferry to Anacortes in between the time we arrive and our ferry. Moral of the story, if you are visiting in the spring and are taking a ferry before 9am, you do not need to get to your inter-island ferry super early. I would recommend closer to 20 minutes early and trust the employees, they know what they are doing. If you are visiting in the summer or getting an inter-island ferry on the weekend later in the morning, plan to arrive closer to that 45 minutes prior suggestion.

And how busy was the inter-island ferry? There were 12 total cars, 2 of which were mail trucks. It was the most empty ferry I had ever seen. It was lovely and so relaxing. We arrived at Orcas Island at 9:15am. Our first stop when arriving on Orcas Island was Brown Bear Baking. This is a very popular bakery and there was line out the door when we arrived. We got a few pastries that were delicious.

Moran State park

After being properly fueled up, we headed up to Mount Constitution - the highest point in all of the San Juan Islands. Mount Constitution is in Moran State Park, which also happens to be the largest state park in the islands. The drive up Mount Constitution is almost as beautiful as the view from the top. About half way up there is a small pull off with a view that is definitely worth stopping for. After that, continue up and park in the lot at the top. Note that you will need a Discover Pass for this parking lot like at Lime Kiln State park. At the top, near the parking lot, there is a small visitor center and gift shop and restrooms. If you walk up the hill a bit, you’ll see an observation tower, a picnic area and absolutely incredible views. Climbing up the medieval looking observation tower is a must do and gives you 360 degree views of the San Juan Islands and multiple mountain ranges in the distance. It is definitely worth visiting this on a clear day and I would consider moving the day I would go up Mount Constitution to a day or time when it is clear.

If you are feeling more adventurous or have older kids, there are multiple hiking trails that take you to the summit past lakes and old-growth forests. We did hike.. but not on one of the trails to the summit. After exploring mount constitution, we drove down the mountain 90% of the way till we made it to the trail head of the Cascade Falls Trail. This hike is one of my favorite waterfall hikes in the Pacific Northwest, especially with kids, for a few reasons. It has a high number of waterfalls per mile. We hiked just over a mile and saw 4 waterfalls. The layout of the trails, you can choose to just visit one or all four falls to make the hike longer or shorter. If your kids just have half a mile in them, you can see the 2 best waterfalls - in my opinion (Rustic and Cascade Falls). A couple of the waterfalls have streams below them where kids can play and explore. The scenery around the waterfalls are gorgeous too. While none of these waterfalls are the most incredible I’ve seen, the hike itself is such a high reward hike with kids or for not frequent hikers.

The parking lot is small, but the 3 different times we’ve done this hike (including on different trips), we have been able to get a spot - once we had to wait about 3 minutes for someone who was leaving. The hike can get muddy after it has been raining so we like to do this hike in boots, especially if you plan to let your kids play in or near the stream. Very quickly on the hike you come across the first waterfall - Rustic Falls. This waterfall has the easiest stream access. From here you can either head left or right along the trail. I’d recommend going right and heading to Cascade Falls next. There is both an upper and lower viewing area. If everyone in your group is comfortable with steps, the lower viewing area is gorgeous. There are logs closer to the falls that you can walk across if you are brave enough to. There are more hiking trails near Cascade Falls that will take you to different parts of the state park. If you want to continue on seeing the waterfalls, head back the way you came past Rustic Falls again. Keep walking past Rustic falls to Cavern Falls and eventually to Hidden Falls if you desire. If not you can head back up the hill to the parking lot.

Eastsound Waterfront Park & Indian island

Our trip to the San Juan Islands happened to overlap with some really great low tides (-2ft). One of the best days was this day and when looking up about low tide on Orcas Island, I saw recommendations for Obstruction Pass State Park. It is a rocky beach with great tide pools and low crowds, mainly because it requires a 0.6 mile trail to get to. We first headed there and after getting to the parking lot, we decided our energy levels didn’t quite align with a hike to get to a beach. So we went back towards town where we had seen other beaches on our drive on the island earlier that day that were closer to the parking lot. While I don’t know what possibly awaited us at Obstruction Pass, this pivot ended up being well worth it.

We ended up at Eastsound Waterfront Park. Unbeknownst to us, on ultra-low tide days, you can walk out to a small island called Indian Island on a narrow sandy trail. As soon as we got to the beach we saw people walking out to the island and decided to set down our sand toys and join them. We were very new to tide pooling at this point, having moved to the Pacific Northwest just 4 months prior, but I would still rate it as one of our best tide pooling experiences. We saw so many sea stars. We saw sea cucumbers and creatures that we hadn’t learned the name of yet. There are scientists that monitor the creatures on this island every time the tide is low enough to walk out to it. Please be respectful of this nature and follow their instructions and signs.

One of the most common things we encountered were geoducks. Countless times when walking around on the sand, we’d suddenly get squirted with a squirt of water coming from the ground. After some investigation and a google search - we found the name of what they were - geoducks. These are bivalves or clams that are actually quite large and live under the sand. It sucks up water to get the plankton and nutrients in it and when it needs to or with the pressure from your steps, it shoots up the excess water. Depending on the time, this both scared and delighted my kids.

If you do manage to make to Orcas island on an ultra low tide day and get to venture out to Indian island, make sure you are keeping track of time and your surroundings. Tide can come back in fast and it is not fun to wade through knee-deep water to get back to the beach. We typically try to aim to be at a beach for low tide about 45 minutes before actual low tide, this gives us plenty of time to explore and pretends the risk of us being stranded anywhere.

Our last stop was ice cream at Clever Cow Creamery before heading to the ferry terminal. We arrived at the ferry terminal about 25 minutes before our inter-island ferry back to Friday Harbor that was set to depart at 4:15pm. We were all tired from the day and lack of sleep the night before, so we stayed in our car for this ferry ride back. It is quite interesting being on the car deck for the San Juan Island routes as they have a special way they load and unload cars as they hop between islands. Some cars end up being loaded opposite directions. Depending on where your final destination is, changes where on the ferry they direct you to. You are allowed to get out of your car on the car deck and take photos.

Once back on San Juan Island, we headed back to our VRBO to have dinner.

Day 4:

San Juan Island national HIstorical Park - english camp

National Park day! San Juan Island is known for two things - its beautiful nature and the time back in the 1850s when the United States and Great Britain almost went to war over a pig. Both the United States and Britain claimed the San Juan Islands, due to their proximity to both American mainland and Vancouver Island. San Juan Island especially had mixed ownership. One American settler killed a pig that belonged to a British employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company because the pig was eating his crops. Tensions escalated and thankfully the result was the two sides agreeing to having joint military occupation on the island. The American camp being on the south end of the island and the British camp being on the north end. These camps were occupied till 1872 and there was no actual violence that took place (other than the pig). Eventually ownership of the San Juan Islands was granted to the United States and the British left.

You can visit both camps on the San Juan Islands and they are part of the San Juan Island National Historical Park, which is run by the NPS. This site operates like a lot of national parks - you can get a stamp for your National Park Passport and kids can get a Junior Ranger Badge if they finish their Junior Ranger Booklet. Our kids were a bit too young for most of the pages, but they let young kids complete the number of pages of their age. And by “complete” it doesn’t need to be correct. Their scribble drawings on some of the pages counted. We collected the booklets at the English Camp that we visited in the morning, used the booklet as an activity throughout the day and then dropped it off and got our badge in the afternoon at the American Camp.

Parking here is free and the site was very empty when we came at 9am on a Sunday. We saw what seemed like locals just enjoying a walk through the park. The park includes several building remnants, a formal English garden, walking trails, and an informational building. It was a nice little spot and it had a great view of the bay.

San Juan Islands Sculpture Park

Heading just five minutes north, we made it to San Juan Islands Sculpture Park. I had seen good reviews, but this sculpture park far exceeded my expectations for a free park on an island. The website states that there are 110 to 150 sculptures and there truly are an abundance of art, several of which are interactive. Almost all of the art is for sale and you will be able to see prices on or next to them. So pieces do leave and new pieces come in; as well as some pieces that have been bought by the park as a permanent collection piece. The park is completely free to visit but they do accept donations by the entrance.

Also near the entrance is a map of the park with multiple different trails you can walk to see the sculptures. It would likely take you several hours to explore the whole park and look at all of the art. We decided to choose the Field Path and part of the Pond Loop to explore. I don’t think you can go wrong which ever way you go.

Art isn’t always a kid-friendly experience, but here it is. There is a small play area where kids can build their own sculptures. Many of the sculptures have interactive components - either playing music, making wishes on, or moving around sheep in the field. When we went there were thousands of daisies in the field, which we used to make daisy chain crowns. There were ducks and turtles in the pond, named Frog Pond, there were very likely frogs too but we did not see any.

Even if you just have one day on the island, I highly recommend this stop.

Roche Harbor

Another very short drive took us to Roche Harbor. A lot of the town is pedestrian only, so we parked our car up the hill in a spot that allowed for up to 2 hour parking. This town was gorgeous and felt quite different than the rest of the island. Very resort-esque with immaculately clean streets, perfect storybook rental houses, and upscale finishes. It is very well done and feels quite peaceful. The whole island feels magical, but this town feels more like manufactured magic, but not necessarily in a bad way. Our main goal in Roche Harbor was to eat lunch. We decided to eat at Madrona Bar & Grill, which opens for the season on May 1st. Most of the seating here is outdoors so if the weather is chilly or less than ideal, you can ask to sit inside. But the views on the outdoor patio are gorgeous. The food was good but pricey, but that was to be expected.

Reuben Tarte County Park - beach

There are far less public beaches on the San Juan Islands than one would expect for them being islands. Over 90% of the shoreline is privately owned. Privately owned all the way down to the low tide line. A lot of the public beaches are part of either state or national parks. This park - Reuben Tarte - is a county park created by the founder of the Roche Harbor Resort. It is a relatively small park with a rocky beach that is great for tide pooling, whale watching or observing seals, or just enjoying the nature.

There is an upper parking area, close to the road and a lower parking area by the beach. Parking at the beach is very limited and is mostly reserved for unloading as kayaking from here is common. The beach is often quite empty and we had it nearly to ourselves when we went. We were able to spot a sea cucumber and a couple sea stars while exploring the tide pools.

San Juan Island National Historical Park - American Camp

Our final spot of the day was the American Camp part of the San Juan Island National Historic Park. The American Camp is far larger than the English Camp and I wish we devoted more time to it. If you have extra time or older kids who have more energy, I would recommend spending half a day here.

There is so much diverse beautiful nature here, a lighthouse, hiking trails, and historic buildings. We spent most of our time at the American camp on South Beach. This is a very long rocky beach with beautiful views of the ocean. It happens to be the longest public beach on the islands. There was plenty of space to enjoy the beach without being close to other people. We were able to spot some bald eagles flying around behind us and tried to spot Orcas, without any luck.

After playing at the beach for an hour, we drove more on Cattle Point to see the lighthouse and the rest of the park from the car. There is a short 0.5 mile roundtrip trail to the lighthouse and to enjoy the ocean and prairie views from up on the cliffs. You can not enter inside the lighthouse.

Note, that in the spring baby red foxes are often spotted in the prairie at the American Camp - near Cattle Point - playing near their dens. These are very cute to observe from a distance but be sure to keep your distance. At least 75 feet away and never feed them or try to approach. We learned about this after our visit and did not try to look for them.

Day 5:

We made reservations for our return ferry to Anacortes for 1:55pm, this gave us some extra time to explore in the morning. After packing up our stuff and checking out of the VRBO, we headed over to Krystal Acres Alpaca Farm.

Krystal Acres Alpaca Farm

Just driving around the island, you will see that a large chunk of the island is used as farmland. There are lots of small farms, both for crops and pastures. It is definitely worth interacting with at least one of the small family farms on the island - whether that is through a farm stay, buying from one of the farm stands along the roads, or visiting a farm.

We visited Krystal Acres Alpaca Farm, which is open 5 days a week (MWTFS) from 11-4pm most of the year. This beautiful farm is home to about 50 to 60 adorable alpaca. It is a small fee to buy a bag of alpaca feed, which I highly recommend. We spent almost an hour here just walking around, slowly making it through our food bag, watching and interacting with the alpacas. The whole family had such a great time. The farm also has a great store where you can buy alpaca wool products along with other gifts. It is completely free to visit the farm if you don’t plan to feed them.

Leaving the island

After the farm, we drove into town to pick up lunch and got lined up for our ferry. Our ferry ended up arriving early and we were loaded onto the ferry and left slightly before our expected departure time.