No one took me up on an offer I made in my last post. For $1, I asked folks to guess where I was when I took this picture:
Boy, there sure are a lot of island markers here. Smith Island, Lopez Island, Goose Island, Orcas Island… hm. If you’ve lived in the PNW for some time, you know there’s an island missing here.
It wouldn’t make sense to have a marker if I’m already on the island- San Juan Island, that is.
About a month ago, I braved the Sunday morning fog on SR 20 and parked my car onboard the Kaleetan. I had fumbled around the idea of heading to one of the islands (ideally, I’d like to visit all of them), and it took a while for me to figure out where I’d be headed on my inaugural ferry ride. I wanted to head somewhere that I could aimlessly explore for the day, while also taking advantage of all that island life had to offer. San Juan Island checked off all the boxes for this trip.
The ride itself was nothing but smooth sailing. I’m sure the ferry operators have seen plenty of recreations of this photo taken on the way there:
My copilot for this excursion insisted I take a Titanic-esque photo of her while we were enroute.
We disembarked the ferry with no game plan- on purpose. I told my copilot that she was at full liberty to choose our destinations, or we could meander along San Juan’s roadways until we found something interesting. It would’ve made sense to start the other way around, but we ended up meandering first.
The most striking thing about wandering aimlessly for 5 minutes past the ferry terminal was… forgetting you were on an island. We drove through rolling hills and farmland for what seemed like ages. It felt like I was back in upstate New York all over again. Reality snapped back into frame once we hit the island’s scenic loop- “oh yeah, we’re completely surrounded by water!”
Our first stop landed us towards the western part of San Juan Island. Welcome to Lime Kiln Point State Park, with Canada’s Cordova Bay on the horizon.
I could’ve been content with just this view and the endless cerulean blues crashing into the rocks below me. But I’m on an adventure, and the magic seems to find me in mysterious ways. Right as we were trekking through this area, I thought I saw something poke its head out of the water. It surfaced for a few seconds, turned its head, and promptly disappeared. I swear it was a sea lion. It chose not to resurface, leading my copilot to believe I might be delusional. I can confirm, though- it definitely wasn’t an orca. This would’ve been a very different post if we had seen one.
Lime Kiln Point State Park didn’t get its name out of thin air. See all that white stuff on the rocks here? That’s lime residue from the kiln’s glory days. I love the intermingling of the older, chalky lime with the green algae creeping up the rocks. I even saw a few tiny hermit crabs at work within the barnacles. And the crystal clear water lapping up along the shore? I can’t get enough of it.
I did take some photos of the kiln itself- which is remarkably well-preserved!- but I’ll save some of the spoils for your own travels, should you choose to make the trek.
From here, we decided to revert to our GPS in order to reach the southern end of the island. We had a bright red fox cross our path just before we turned into the Cattle Point “Interpretive Area,” whatever that means. There was a small vacant building with some informational posters inside, surrounded by some paths to the shore. While it was a cool place to explore, we felt like there was more to discover in this area.
A little bit up the road, we found a small parking area with a promising-looking path:
It could’ve been nothing. Just a quick footpath to the edge of the cliff below to take in some more spectacular water views. I was certainly unopposed to a brief jaunt down this path.
This little path turned into something much more fascinating.
This unobscured, cliffside hike took us all the way to that lighthouse in the distance. If you’re not a fan of heights, a lack of a railing, or eroding earth, this might not be the path for you. My copilot famously had me turn around when we did the Mount Baker drive and passed the guardrail-less section. Initially, she was not the biggest fan of this trek, and had me walk closer to the cliffside as a “buffer.” Thanks.
It was totally worth it. The path is a lot longer than it seems, with a hilly route accented by foxholes and other local wildlife. We ran into a photographer who claimed he’d seen one just scampering past us. Past the lighthouse, there’s two very steep paths down to the shore, if you dare.
Of course, we dared to head down the path of least resistance and back up the other path of… way more resistance (there was a lot of loose sand). Totally worth it.
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