San Juan Island

We decided to take our island hopping to a whole new level. This time by going to an island that can not be driven too; San Juan Island. It was somewhat of a time killing exercise as well as a National Park visit with the San Juan Island National Historic Park being on this island.

Since we arrived fairly late in the afternoon we setup camp at the county fairgrounds. I’ve enjoyed camping at fairgrounds ever since my Mother and I did back in 2011 at Pima County Fairgrounds. Not only are most fairgrounds alive with activity, they bring me back to some great memories I had with Mom. Unfortunately, the fairgrounds on the San Juan Island was very small and no activity at all. It is off-season so that is to be expected. One nice thing was that the fairgrounds were only a half mile outside of the town of Friday Harbor. So we walked into town for dinner, drinks, and all in all a nice evening out together.

The following morning we set out to tour the island, starting with the National Historic Park. Originally we (alright, I did) missed the turn off and instead found ourselves at Cattle Point – the southern most tip of the island – where we walked around a bit with the dogs. Sea lions were doing their thing on the little island off shore. Gurgling, burping, farting… all of that sea lion glory. At first it was nice and quite and a great way to start the morning off, but by the end of our short walk here the parking lot was already beginning to fill. We took that as a sign to escape.

Backtracking to the National Historic Park I picked up my obligatory lapel pin (my 110th Ntnl Park) at the visitor’s center and went on another short hike to see the old American Camp. It was here that I realized just how little – nothing in fact – I knew about this almost-war between the USA and Canada. All over a dispute over which country the San Juan Islands belonged too. As usual, America threatened military actions and after a period of tension the British/Canadians backed down. So, both the American’s and the British have military camps on this island – hence the National Historic Park –  and we visited both during the day.

We also dropped in on Lime Kiln Point State Park for a quick hike and to see the lighthouse. Not a whole lot to say about it to be honest; it’s a lighthouse. I dunno why, but they never really do a whole lot for me unless they are massively spectacular. Anyway… hey there Canada! We could almost reach out and touch Canada from here, just across the channel.

Although we intended to board a mid afternoon ferry to get to Orcas Island before sundown we decided against it after realizing Kerri read the schedule wrong. We would have had to wait for an evening ferry, arriving on the island after dark. Not ideal at all, so we drove back across the San Juan Island to the San Juan County Park where we would camp the night. I guess it was OK and all, we did end up having the place to ourselves as no one seems to camp in the PNW once October rolls around. We even sat out in the evening to watch the sun set – not a regular thing for us anymore – and did a whole lot of day dreaming about being out on that water in the boat instead of on land.