TRIP OVERVIEW
Day 1 – American Camp · Lime Kiln Point State Park · Cattle Point Light · The Whale Museum
Day 2 – English Camp · Roche Harbor
Day 1
From Hotel: 🚕 20 min → American Camp
1. American Camp
The 1859 American military encampment at the island's south end, now the southern unit of San Juan Island National Historical Park. Open coastal prairie rolls to bluffs above the English Channel. Officers' quarters and laundress quarters survive on site; bald eagles and red foxes are common in the open meadows.
🚶 15 min · 🚕 5 min → Lime Kiln Point State Park
2. Lime Kiln Point State Park
The only Washington state park designed specifically for watching whales from shore. Lime Kiln Lighthouse stands on the island's westernmost bluff above Haro Strait — one of the most reliable land-based orca-watching sites in the world. A seasonal naturalist station operates on site.
🏛️ Daily 8:00am - 8:00pm
⏰ ~2 hr
⚠️ Washington Discover Pass required for parking.
🚶 15 min · 🚕 5 min → Cattle Point Light
3. Cattle Point Light
A 1935 Art Deco lighthouse at the southeastern tip of San Juan Island, marking the southern entrance to San Juan Channel. The headland is open year-round with sweeping views toward the Olympic Mountains. Named in 1841 by the Wilkes Expedition — the first geographic feature named in the Pacific Northwest.
🚶 15 min · 🚕 5 min → The Whale Museum
4. The Whale Museum
A research and interpretive museum in Friday Harbor dedicated to the cetaceans of the Salish Sea. Skeletal mounts, research displays, and a real-time sighting station track the Southern Resident killer whale pods. The museum operates the Orca Network hotline and stranding response program.
🏛️ Daily 10:00am - 5:00pm
⏰ ~1 hr
No pictures found.
🚶 5 min · 🚕 2 min → hotel
Day 2
From Hotel: 🚕 15 min → English Camp
1. English Camp
The British Royal Marines garrison at Garrison Bay, forming the northern unit of San Juan Island National Historical Park. A formal garden, barracks, blockhouse, and commissary survive from the 1860s joint-occupation period. The Young Hill trail begins at the site and climbs to the island's highest open summit.
🚕 8 min → Roche Harbor
2. Roche Harbor
A historic resort village at the island's north end built around a 19th-century lime works. Hotel de Haro is one of Washington's oldest continuously operating hotels. Grounds include the Art Deco McMillin Mausoleum in a forest clearing and the International Sculpture Park above the marina.
🚕 20 min → hotel
📅 Tours
Viator
Half-day whale-watching cruise departing the Friday Harbor waterfront, with an onboard naturalist targeting Southern Resident orcas, humpbacks, and minke whales in Haro Strait.
⏳ 3 hr · 👥 Small group
🚶 5 min · 🚕 3 min
☕ Cappuccino
Brown Bear Baking · 4.7⭐ · 130+ reviews
Salty Fox Coffee · 4.4⭐ · 85+ reviews
San Juan Coffee Roasting Co. · 4.5⭐ · 120+ reviews
🫕 Restaurants Near Hotel
Vinny's Ristorante · 4.4⭐ · 180+ reviews
Italian trattoria with pizza, pasta, and antipasti; full bar.
🏛️ Daily 4:00pm - 9:00pm
🚶 2 min · 🚕 2 min
Market Chef · 4.7⭐ · 200+ reviews
Casual deli-style café with house-made soups, sandwiches, and seasonal salads.
🏛️ Monday - Saturday 11:00am - 5:00pm
🚫 Closed Sunday
🚶 3 min · 🚕 2 min
Backdoor Kitchen · 4.6⭐ · 160+ reviews
Eclectic global menu; Asian and Mediterranean influences.
🏛️ Wednesday - Sunday 5:00pm - 9:00pm
🚫 Closed Monday & Tuesday
🚶 4 min · 🚕 2 min
Fog & Thistle Bar & Grill · 4.4⭐ · 300+ reviews
American gastropub with a wood-fired grill, local beers, and a covered patio.
🏛️ Daily 11:30am - 10:00pm
🚶 4 min · 🚕 2 min
San Juan Island Brewing Company · 4.5⭐ · 250+ reviews
Craft brewery and pub with rotating ales, sandwiches, flatbreads, and pub bites.
🏛️ Daily 12:00pm - 9:00pm
🚶 6 min · 🚕 3 min
🍽️ Downtown Restaurants
Haul Line · 4.5⭐ · 150+ reviews
Upscale Pacific Northwest dining; local farm-to-table menu.
🏛️ Daily 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Cask & Schooner Restaurant & Pub · 4.3⭐ · 400+ reviews
British-style pub with burgers, sandwiches, and pub classics; patio seating.
🏛️ Daily 11:00am - 10:00pm
Duck Soup Inn · 4.6⭐ · 220+ reviews
Pacific Northwest cuisine in a rustic woodframe building; acclaimed for decades.
🏛️ Wednesday - Sunday 5:00pm - 9:00pm
🚫 Closed Monday & Tuesday
🚌 Getting Around
🚕 Uber
🚢 Washington State Ferries
Primary ferry service connecting Friday Harbor to the mainland.
San Juan Island has a ferry — operated by Washington State Department of Transportation. Route: Friday Harbor ↔ Anacortes.
🏓 Pickleball
Cahill Court · Outdoor
1 outdoor court with lights; free; pickleball lines on a tennis court.
🏛️ Daily 6:00am - 9:00pm
🚶 8 min · 🚕 3 min
San Juan Golf & Tennis Club · Outdoor
8 outdoor courts with lights; open to the public; court fees apply.
🏛️ Tuesday - Sunday 7:00am - 7:00pm · Monday 12:00pm - 7:00pm
🚕 7 min
🕊️ A War Over a Pig
In June 1859, an American settler on San Juan Island shot a Hudson's Bay Company pig that had been rooting through his potato garden. What followed was one of the stranger episodes in US–British relations: each side sent troops, escalating to over 400 American soldiers and 5 British warships in the harbor, while the two commanding officers on the ground independently decided they had no intention of starting a war over the incident.
For 12 years, US and British soldiers occupied opposite ends of the same 55-square-mile island under formal joint military occupation, sharing whiskey and celebrating each other's national holidays. Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, asked to arbitrate, ruled in favor of the United States. The British garrison left peacefully. The pig, which started the whole thing, was the only casualty of the entire affair — and the reason Day 1 and Day 2 of this itinerary visit opposite ends of the same island.