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There’s a few good reasons why we haven’t been to the San Juan Islands in Washington. The main one being the huge obstacle in the way of getting there, also known as Seattle. The other being that well, they are islands. Typically we’d truck camp to a destination like this but the extra step of ferrying to multiple islands made this an item that barely made the list of places to consider visiting. Then in 2021 we purchased our 16 foot Hewes Craft, also known as the Red Baron. All the sudden a visit seemed pretty intriguing and it got bumped up the list several slots. Our window for this exploratory trip was a week in June, we packed the boat and headed north. After a night in Washington Park in Anacortes we launched off into the salt for a week of adventure.

Our first stop was James Island. The original plan was a much more distant island, but with a small craft warning in effect we made the short hop over to James. There was one boat there upon arrival but they soon left and we had the place nearly to ourselves. After reading about James we worried about racoons raiding camp, but it seems that issue may be in the past.

The first part of the trip is also covered in this video:

Rain settled in soon after and we spent the better part of the day hunkered down before heading on a hike around the island. James is a relatively small barbell shaped island with two protective coves, one with a nice dock. There are trails for a tour of the island. Besides the camping area the rest of the island is undeveloped and it is entirely a state park.

The next day brought better weather and we headed north to Sucia Island. Sucia is fairly large and is a horseshoe shaped island with several protected coves. It is entirely a State Park with several areas where you can camp. We again opted for the area with a dock and soon had camp set up overlooking Fossil Bay.

With an otter doing some fishing and the Canada Geese honking we had a pretty good spot.

We headed for a hike to the other side of the island, Shallow Bay and the China Caves.

The next day was crystal clear and a good day to get out and try some fishing. Ling cod were the intended fish, but we were surprised with mainly catching spiny dogfish sharks. More on that in the video. One undersized ling did come up, but was quickly released. What a beautiful day on the water! We returned and watched the awesome sunset with colors lighting up the sky.

After a couple days on Sucia it was time to find another spot to explore. We headed south to Jones Island for our final stop. Jones is almost a twin to James, another relatively small horseshoe shaped island, which is entirely a state park and has trails around the island. Our first night at Jones treated us to blue sky and another stellar sunset, with views all the way to Canada.

The weather didn’t hold though, and the next day brought our second small craft warning accompanied by lots and lots of rain. After one more try at fishing we hunkered down to attempt at keeping dry in this absolutely soaking rain, but did eventually get out for a hike around the island. My boots were almost dry by the end of the trip.

The last day before heading back to Washington Park we went exploring. Our first stop was Stuart Island State Park. Stuart is a larger island and the park is a portion of the island with camping and docks on opposite sides in two separate harbors. Stuart is about as far west as you can go without being in Canada.

From Stuart we travelled east to one of the larger islands, Orcas Island, and the village of Orcas.

We returned to Jones and enjoyed one more driftwood fire. Camp was filling up with the coming weekend and it seemed the crowd was there after shrimp. Thanks to the guys who shared a couple dozen with us, delicious!

Our last day we were up and on the water for the 20 mile trip back to the mainland. It was a smooth uneventful ride back. You can watch the video of part two of the trip here:

If you go, we suggest a couple books on boating the islands. The first is San Juan Islands: A Boaters Guidebook. The charts and details in this book are amazing. For another perspective the second would be the San Juan Islands Travel Guide. We used the Navionics Boating app for navigation and although I have used it for a few years I discovered several features using it to navigate place to place on big water. With that, it’s time to start planning your own trip!