Kayaking the San Juan Islands

In Summer 2011, right after I finished graduate school, it was Allyson's turn to lose herself in graduate school. Before diving in, we wanted (desperately needed) an adventure. Several months before, I had entered a lottery to hike the Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier in Washington and we got the permit! We were so excited! And then a week before we were planning on going (with two of our friends), we discovered that much of the trail was still under several feet of snow. Our bucket list adventure was not going to happen in 2011. But of course, we were not going to give up on adventuring and we already had our tickets up to Washington (plus we had to be on Orcas Island a couple weeks later to find a caterer for our wedding in 2012). 

One of our friends had some experience with kayaking, reading tide charts, etc. and we are pretty experienced kayakers (even more so now, after this adventure and our amazing kayaking trips in New Zealand), so we decided to spend several days kayaking in the San Juan Islands. Most kayak rental companies in the San Juan Islands want you to or require you to go on a guided trip, and rightfully so. Honestly, if you have money, the guided trip would be a lot simpler and require less planning on your part. We had to take care of a lot of details last minute and some of them were tricky. 

Also, the trip I'm going to outline here shouldn't be done unless you know what you are doing. At the end of this post, I will outline an easier trip that might be better for people with a little less experience and still plenty of fun! 

Views of Mt. Rainier from Seattle. See all that snow! We spent a couple days in Seattle with family and friends before heading out to the islands. 

Getting to the islands is an adventure in and of itself. You can either fly to the islands on Kenmore Air or take the ferry from Anacortes (about a 2 hour drive from Sea-Tac International Airport). I've done both and both are cool. Both have limited schedules, so it can take some planning to coordinate your flights to Seattle and your travel to the islands. It's worth the hassle, trust me! 

At the ferry dock.

Already worth the hassle. Riding the ferry is one of my favorite parts of going to the Islands. 

We rented a car and drove up to Anacortes to take the ferry to Friday Harbor (San Juan Island). We had reserved two tandem kayaks from Sea Quest Expeditions on San Juan Island before leaving for our trip. We checked in with them on the day we got there, but didn't pick the kayaks up until the following day. 

We camped the first night on the islands at San Juan County Park on the west coast of San Juan Island (this was also our launching point the following morning). This was a great place to camp and look for Orca Whales while watching the sun set. 

We did see whales way off in the distance!

The next morning we had to get the kayaks to San Juan County Park and watch a safety video required by the park in order to launch from there. We couldn't leave our car at San Juan County Park while we were gone, so our two friends drove the car into Friday Harbor, had a taxi/shuttle (they are equipped to move kayaks...it just costs more) take them to pick up the kayaks at Sea Quest Expeditions, and then headed back to San Juan County Park. Allyson and I watched the video, so we were basically ready to go when the other two got back to the park. 

Clearly pumped to get out on the water!

I'm not an expert kayaker, but from what I know we had incredible luck with the currents and tides for our trip. I am not sure this trip would always be as manageable as it was for us. I really appreciated the help Sea Quest gave us in planning the trip. Our trip was 5 days and 4 nights, starting at San Juan County Park and finishing up in North Bay on the east side of San Juan Island. All of our campsites were part of the Cascadia Marine Trail, a network of campsites, access points, etc. from Olympia, Washington to Canada. 

We made stops at Henry Island, Stuart Island (overnight), Point Doughty on Orcas Island (overnight), Jones Island (overnight), Deer Harbor, and Turn Island (overnight). Note: I would cut Deer Harbor out of the trip....we desperately wanted a warm breakfast but there were no restaurants, just egg and cheese biscuits at the harbor store.

Day 1 - San Juan County Park to Stuart Island

We took off from San Juan Island, and paddled for awhile before stopping for lunch on Henry Island. I would never have imagined we would see such a beautiful fox on the beach, especially right after we began! 

Henry Island

A beautiful Madrona Tree, which our friend used as an example when designing our wedding invitations.

After lunch we continued north across the Salish Sea (and the ferry route so kept our eyes open!), to the west of Spieden Island and up through the channel between Stuart and Johns Islands.

Passing by Spieden Island on our way to Stuart Island 

After the channel, we went left/west along the north side of Stuart Island, and the north side of Satellite Island, before turning into Prevost Harbor. We stayed the night in Stuart Island State Park with beautiful views (obviously!) and a campsite right on the water.

Our campsite

Day 2 - Stuart Island to Point Doughty

The next morning, the tide was coming in, so we planned on staying on Stuart Island for the morning. We took a nice hike to Turn Point Lighthouse. The trail is actually a dirt road, but there are few cars on the island. We walked by the Stuart Island school. It was really interesting to see old class pictures of the small number of students that attended the school, and they had some artwork by the children for sale as well.

In early afternoon, we took off and headed out of Prevost Harbor, back along the coast of Johns Island, and (I think) to the north of Flattop Island. This was one of the most challenging (and frankly a bit scary) sections of our trip. It took a long time to get across this fairly open stretch of water and there were pretty big waves. It was nothing like our experience on the Mad Mile at Abel Tasman in New Zealand, but it still took a lot of work and was not all that pleasant.

When we got to Orcas Island we took a short break on a beach before continuing up the west coast. I think the beach we stopped at was close to Lover's Cove, but I don't know for sure.

We then paddled the rest of the way up the west coast of Orcas Island to Point Doughty. This place was so amazing! It felt like we were at the edge of the world or something with incredible views all around. In reality, Point Doughty is not that far from Eastsound and really close to a YMCA camp, so we could hear people at night. 

The staircase up to the campsite at Point Doughty (it is located on the south side of the point) 

Love this spot 

Our campsite at Point Doughty. I think there are four primitive sites total. 

Day 3 - Point Doughty to Jones Island

The next morning we took off pretty early and it was raining and foggy. Because I'm a self-proclaimed sun worshiper, most people would think I could not enjoy a morning like this. But quite the contrary in a place like the San Juan Islands. These are their most special mornings. These mornings, the water is like glass and the seals and bald eagles and other creatures are all out enjoying the quiet morning.

We shared the beach with this regal bird for quite some time. He didn't seem to mind. 

We had heard that we needed to be careful with the seal pups this time of year, because they'll follow your kayak and lose their mamas. We were very careful not to paddle away from this little one until we knew she wasn't following us. 

We got to Jones Island on the early side, and we welcomed the easy paddle day. Jones Island had more people than anywhere else we had been so far, but not so many that it was crowded or anything. We paddled around to the west coast of the island and found some kayak only sites (on the north side of the island, motorized boats can anchor and stay the night). We did a lot of just hanging out at our campsite (which was lovely!) but also explored the island a bit. There were lots of little trails around the island, so fun to go out and explore on foot (rather than by water) for a change. 

We shared our campsite with this critter, who was just waiting for us to go to bed before he and his friends came to rummage around our campsite!

Sunset at Jones Island

Day 4 - Jones Island to Deer Harbor to Turn Island

We woke up really wanting a plate of hot food (eggs, potatoes, bacon, biscuit was what I was picturing) and decided to venture off course a bit to Deer Harbor on Orcas Island. The paddle over there was really nice but we kind of had to be sneaky about where we pulled up on shore. Then we discovered there weren't really any restaurants right at the harbor. We were super disappointed, but made the most of it and ate some egg and biscuit sandwiches and drank some coffee before heading on our way. 

This morning/afternoon was the only other sketchy moment on our trip. We had to cross another ferry route, which was a pretty wide channel, with some choppy waves, and several large eddies. I was pretty anxious for moments of the crossing, but it went fine. Again, we went around the west side of Turn Island because there were some people already camping on the north side. We had the west side of the island to ourselves all evening, and I'm now realizing why wouldn't you go with the west side? Best sunset views from there!
                                                                                         

Day 5 - Turn Island to San Juan Island

We got up early on the fifth day because Allyson and I planned on catching a morning ferry to Victoria, Canada. This morning was one of my favorite memories of the trip. I have no pictures because it was raining pretty steadily and it was just too magical to take out the camera. The water was, again, perfect glass. We paddled around Turn Point, and along this stretch, I've never seen so many Harbor Seals and pups in my life. With the water so perfectly calm, we could see their little heads pop up really far away from us (and really close). They were everywhere!

I think we took our kayaks out at Jackson Beach Road, but I'm not positive. It was a boat launch (motorized), and the taxi came to pick us and our kayaks up there. The taxi then dropped us off in Friday Harbor and then took the kayaks back to Sea Quest Expeditions for us. (Don't quote me on this, but my notes say this shuttle service cost us $40 per kayak each way, so $160 total.)

We were soggy, smelly, and cold, but Allyson and I hopped the ferry to Victoria, where we had the most luxurious hotel room (sure felt like it after 5 days in the water). After a hot shower, we felt so satisfied with our kayaking adventure and were ready to enjoy the rest of our time in the Pacific Northwest on land!

Just a few of my other favorite pictures from our time in Victoria and on Orcas Island...

Beacon Hill Park in Victoria

Back on Orcas...

We saw Elephant Revival play in our wedding venue and it was the perfect way to experience the magic of Odd Fellows Hall. For wedding photos, see our wedding photographer's (Jonathan Steinberg) blog. 

Other Self-Guided Kayaking Options in the San Juan Islands

I recommend contacting Outer Island Expeditions on Orcas Island. They will rent kayaks for multiple days and can help you plan out a good trip. From here (you can put the kayaks in here at the north short of Orcas Island), you could go to Point Doughty, Jones Island, Blind Island, and Obstruction Pass State Park. When I last spoke with them, they offered to pick us up at Obstruction Pass. This is a good beginner route. You could even fit Turn Island in there between Jones and Blind, if you were comfortable crossing the big channel.

New Zealand - Kayaking Milford Sound (Day 15)

Favorite day of our honeymoon. Christmas Day. One of my best days in all of my days. Think I enjoyed myself in Milford Sound? If you do one thing in New Zealand (and if you are reasonably fit because this trip is somewhat exhausting), kayak the length of Milford Sound with Rosco's Milford Kayaks. 

We signed up for the Morning Glory trip that begins at 6am at Milford Sound Lodge (where we were staying). Our guide, Adam, was terrific and super pumped considering it was 6am on Christmas Day! Adam drove us to the launching spot, where they had all the gear we would ever need and some incredible kayaks! I've never rented kayaks this nice. It helped that the water was like glass when we first began, but these kayaks seriously cut through the water like it wasn't even there. Pretty awesome. 

Milford Sound at sunrise

We started out with a real easy paddle and learning quite a bit about the sound. Adam was really knowledgeable and we definitely had an opportunity to dork out things like identifying bird calls and learning the reason for the dark color of the water (tannins from the vegetation that are brought down the steep mountain walls during heavy rainfall).

As we were heading toward Stirling Falls (we could see it but it was 9km from where we were!), we spotted some spouts of water off in the distance. Adam was sure it was a pod of Southern Bottlenose Dolphins, which he says sometimes are seen in the sound but he doesn't see them very often. We paddled hard to reach the dolphins and managed to get there. We ended up paddling more than intended that day because we turned ourselves in the direction the dolphins were heading and played with them for a bit.

I didn't take my camera out until the very end of our adventure with the dolphins because it was just so incredible. Our boat actually made contact with one of the dolphins and these beautiful animals were huge! About the size of our kayaks. I have a permanent image stuck in my brain of looking out to the right side of my kayak and seeing the most beautiful creature in the world swimming along right next to me in the water. I have goosebumps over two months later.

After the dolphins, I didn't really care what else we saw on our kayak tour. It made my day. However, the fun didn't stop. Next up was the sea otters, and we continued seeing many of them for the remainder of our paddle. The day winds (winds from the Tasman Sea that increase in strength as they are funneled through the sound) picked up in the sound mid-morning which meant that the water got a lot rougher. We rushed through the second half of the trip to make sure we didn't get stuck in water that was too rough. However, the trip wasn't complete without paddling right under Stirling Falls (155m tall; 508 ft). It was a little scary but mostly just invigorating.

Allyson and me at the mouth of the sound (everything we had paddled is behind us) and about to enter the Tasman Sea. 

Anita Bay (by St. Anne's Point) of the Tasman Sea

When we reached Anita Bay we hung out for awhile waiting for the Sea Shuttle (water taxi) to take us back. When the boat got there, everyone in our group jumped off the top of the boat and took a swim in the (freezing) Tasman Sea. It was just such an incredible experience! The shuttle ride back was super choppy and we tackled some big waves, but it was fun to take in all that we had accomplished that morning. 

The boat taxi we took the whole length of the sound back to where we began. 

This was one of those mornings that afterward I thought...my life is not the same as it was before I did this. Allyson and I were both pretty giddy about the experience. We took some time to call our families and wish them a Merry Christmas (even though it was only Christmas Eve in the US) and then relaxed for the afternoon. 

I'd like to say that we got "dressed up" (I know we don't look that fancy, but this was the fanciest we'd dressed for the whole trip) to go out for a nice Christmas dinner. And we thought that might be what we were doing. However, we basically hiked to dinner in our nice clothes and then had the worst meal either one of us had ever had in our lives at the Blue Duck Cafe. In all fairness, this place isn't trying to be nice. I think we just misunderstood, given that they had advertised a 3-course dinner for $50. No chance this was going to ruin our day though. We laughed so hard we cried because the meal was so awful and fell asleep almost as soon as we got back to our chalet (ok...that may have just been me) with big smiles on our faces.