Three Days In The San Juan Islands: Day 2 With Spencer Spit And Shark Reef Sanctuary

You will find Day 1 of our San Juan Island trip here: Three Days In The San Juan Islands: Day 1 And Iceberg Point. I also realized while writing this post that this was technically a 4 day, 3 night trip. My hubby so rarely takes more than a day off to extend the weekend that I forgot we left on Thursday. Oops. However it is 3 days if you think in terms of a day as 24 hours and we were gone about 72 hours, so I’m not that far off.

Odlin County Park & Campground

Day 2 on Lopez Island in the San Juans started around 6am with more ferry watching. The goal today was to ride our bikes to Spencer Spit State Park first thing before checking out of the campground because it was only 3-4 miles away depending on which road you take.

After a quick breakfast we were off about a quarter after 7.

We rolled past the locals foraging for their own morning nourishment.

Spencer Spit State Park

In less than half an hour, we arrived at the state park entrance. I stopped for the obligatory bike leaning snapshot.

Camping is available at Spencer Spit, including some hiker/biker spots. Because we booked this trip last minute it was not an option for us but I would love to stay here in the future.

The rangers are a playful bunch.

After locking our bikes to the provided racks, we took the main path down to the spit and lagoon.

The sun was quickly warming the day and filtering through the coastal forest.

Being it was September and early, we were the only ones out walking. However, there were boats moored out in the water.

A few historical remnants of past settler life had information markers. The wooden water tank was replaced with a well in 1926.

The kayak rental shop was closed. Their website says they run May-Labor Day Weekend but it also was early in the morning so maybe they weren’t open yet.

The lagoon was great for birdwatching.

The spit ran out towards Frost Island between Swifts Bay and Lopez Sound.

A homesteader cabin sat at the end of the spit and offered a picnic area.

Inside the cabin there were posters detailing the homesteading history of the spit and surrounding lands.

I didn’t see a poster in the cabin for it but online you read about how the land was stolen from the Indigenous tribes:

Spencer Spit lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Samish Indian Nation, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and Lummi Nation. For thousands of years the rich waters of the San Juan Archipelago have provided habitat for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their cultures. As winter days lengthen into spring, herring and herring roe collect in the eelgrass beds near shore. A little later, spring Chinook salmon pass through the island channels. Early summer brings sockeye salmon, harvested for millennia with reef nets. Sea urchins are gathered by expert divers in late summer, and clamming peaks in the fall.

Local tribes ceded ownership of the area to the US federal government under duress in the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, keeping rights to harvest natural resources in their usual and accustomed places, including the lands and waters around Lopez Island. After government land surveys were completed in 1875, European-American homesteaders began looking for ideal sites to claim.

There was also information about the geological history, the formation of the spit and islands after the recession of glacial ice thousands of years ago.

It was such a stunning morning view, especially with the rippled clouds above.

We walked all the way to where the channel current flows aggressively between the spit and Frost Island. So close and yet so far.

Our walk overall was not that long and despite feeling like we had dawdled, we were back up at the parking lot a little after 8am. I couldn’t help but admire another local who had chosen such a lovely spot to make its home (albeit temporary).

Holly B’s Bakery and Lopez Grind

We rode our bikes back to Odlin and packed up the car. We were going to take the 1:35pm ferry from Lopez to San Juan so we had plenty of time to do a few more things before heading to the ferry line.

A local bakery, Holly B’s, caught our eye the night before as a nice spot to get a treat and possibly coffee. It was busy at 9am, everyone meeting their bread needs for the weekend.

Gary ended up getting some drip coffee and I picked up a gluten free brownie for later. Look how dark and rich they are!

Not wanting anyone to feel left out, I also snuck next door for an Americano. The Lopez Grind offered a few gluten free treats, themselves.

Shark Reef Sanctuary

Having searched for some local hikes on Washington Trails Association, I knew we had to check out the Shark Reef Sanctuary. With coffee in hand, we drove south about half way between the Lopez village area and Agate Beach where we were yesterday and found the county park trailhead. And what a beautiful trailhead it was!

It even had some picnic tables and bike racks in a clearing next door.

The trail started off on a sturdy boardwalk designed to have some traction when wet. You know how important that can be!

We soon came to a loop and went left.

The whole hike is about 1 mile so it was not long before we emerged from the forest and stood before this view. My picture does not do justice to how stunning this spot is. Okay, maybe a little.

Can you see all the white and grey sea lions perched on the rocks?

We were also fascinated by the current below with the long strands of bull kelp. We may have even tossed some sticks into the channel to see how fast they were carried away. No sharks were spotted, however.

After a while, we begrudgingly continued on the trail to complete the loop hike.

If we had taken a right at the loop in the beginning, we would have come to this secluded pocket beach first. All in all, it was about 45 minutes to complete the loop and be back at the trailhead.

Lopez Island Farmer’s Market

With a little more time to spare, we decided to stop once again at the Farmer’s Market in the village as we were driving through. It was close to the end of their season so there was not large variety of booths to stop at but we did find a little gem. I did not think to take a closer picture but on the right hand side of this one, you can see a small table with a few white signs advertising apple cider and flowers. Three teenagers were manning the booth, offering fresh squeezed cider they had made themselves that morning. We could not resist!

Next door was community garden area called Sally’s Garden Conservation Easement. We didn’t go inside but did walk around the outside learning more from markers along the way.

Sally Bill’s vision for three acres she donated to the community, smack in the heart of Lopez Village, has become a reality. Before she passed away in 1999, Sally bought the property so she could give something back to the Lopez community she loved. With input from dozens of islanders, Sally put together a group of community members to see the job through. What emerged was a carefully crafted plan to preserve open green space in the ever-growing Lopez Village and showcase the island’s agriculture and gardening tradition.

I am pretty sure we also stopped by the Lopez Island Thrift Store just to see what a tiny island village might have in the way of treasure but I don’t have any photographic evidence to back that memory up.

Ferry To San Juan Island

Not certain how many cars would be leaving from Lopez to San Juan, we didn’t want to arrive too late at the ferry terminal. This did give us an opportunity to walk around the parking lot and see what the buildings held. That little one on the left is an inside seating area and mini library! That is a lucky resource for any hikers or cyclists waiting for the boat.

This was also a ferry first for me, the boat had to first drop off cars arriving at Lopez and then turn around and come back to pick up cars departing! This is because the ferry stops at Shaw and Orcas Islands on the way to Friday Harbor. It was a fun process to watch from the viewing dock before going back up to the car to load. Plus, we had a great view of Mount Baker between the islands.

Madrone Cellars

Our ferry arrived on San Juan Island at 2:15pm so we had time to walk around Friday Harbor before we visited Madrone Cellars (rather than drive the 10 miles across the island to our campsite and back). We picked up snacks at the local grocery store and peered into shop windows.

Madrone was a mellow establishment, set up very similar to a wine tasting room (understandable since they do make wine). Their ciders are unique in that they take advantage of spontaneous fermentations and only apples grown on the San Juan Islands themselves.

We left Madrone and made our way to San Juan County Park around 6:30pm, arriving in time to set up camp before the sun set. It was a short walk to the water’s edge to end our day, and we looked forward to what San Juan Island had to offer in the way of hiking and biking for the rest of our stay.

Day 3’s post will share about how we hiked around Lime Kiln State Park and temporarily thwart some skinny dippers, visited a filming location for the movie Practical Magic, learned about how the British Army was once based on San Juan Island, and explored Roche Harbor on its final day of the season!