A Day in the San Juan Islands

When you move to Bellingham, WA, you have so many adventures just a short car and ferry ride away. Here are a couple island adventures members of our team enjoyed recently: 

Lummi Island

What to know:

• You don’t need a reservation for the Gooseberry Pt ferry. Arrive at Gooseberry Point just before the hour. No need for reservations; the ferry runs on the hour from 7am to midnight and loops the 10-minute run until the dock is empty. On the short ride, the ferry staff walk from car to car to collect fares.

What to bring: 

• A cooler for farm stand purchases or picnic lunches
• Shoes for walking or hiking

What we did:

• Attend the Saturday morning market (runs from 10am to 1pm)
• Walked along Sunset Beach
• Baker Preserve Hike - 3.2-mile up and down hike with a partial (but beautiful) view at the top, and a great spot for a short picnic lunch.
• Stop by the Full Bloom Farm farmstand, includes produce, refrigerated items, some grocery items from the mainland, handmade goods, and more.

You could also:

• Have lunch at The Galley 
• Check if there’s live music playing at the Beach Store Cafe.

San Juan Island

What to know about the ferry:

• It’s best to travel with a ferry reservation. The first 30% wave of reservations for the summer months opens in April. Another 30% of spaces opens up two weeks before the sailing date, and another wave is opened 2 days before (note that if you’re traveling with an RV or nonstandard vehicle, different guidelines apply).
• A reservation is not a ticket. Arrive at the Anacortes terminal 45-60 minutes ahead of sailing with a printed reservation to purchase your ticket.  
• You do not need a ticket returning from San Juan to Anacortes, but you do need a reservation (some standby is available but I wouldn’t rely on it).

What to bring:

• Books, puzzles, games, snacks, books, or audiobooks for the hour-long ferry ride (plus the time waiting at the terminals and during disembarking).
• A tote bag for purchases (we bought an oversized book of mazes at Serendipity).

What we did:

• The Young Hill hike, with a spur off to the English Cemetery. It’s about 600 feet elevation and the first chunk is quite steep but the worst is over in about 15 minutes of chugging along (and the trail is wide and beautifully maintained). We completed the hike up and down in right around an hour and the view at the top is just gorgeous. There’s limited parking along San Juan Valley Road but since we went there right off the 9am ferry, we could park there. An alternative parking lot is at English Camp, which also adds about 0.3 miles to your hike. 
• Lunch picnic at English Camp. I wasn’t expecting to find this park and cove as beautiful as it was, especially the formal garden. We also enjoyed reading some of the historical information onsite. 
• Drive back to Friday Harbor (just 15 or so minutes), and spent a couple hours walking around and popping into little shops - Crow’s Nest Coffee (the narrowest coffee shop I’ve ever seen), Serendipity Used Books, the farmers and artisans market at Brickworks, and Gourmet Galley to name a few. 
• On the ferry ride back to Anacortes, the weather was glorious and we had stunning views of Mount Baker through the islands, with sailboats and seagulls galore. 

What might be next up on our adventure list: Lopez Island. It uses the same ferry system as San Juan Island and is a shorter ride (albeit fewer sailing). We’d try to time our visit with an event at the Lopez Center for the Arts, pick a Tour de Lopez bike route, and (as always), check out the local farmers market!

As always, our blog posts are written entirely by a human person.