There are a LOT of islands up in the northern Puget sound area, and very few of them have roads and ferry service. We thought about taking a ferry to one or two of the islands and then driving around, but after driving to and around a nearby island with a bridge and seeing nothing but trees…as the coastal area is all privately owned…we decided that the cost of a ferry ride to see more of the same wouldn’t be worth much. Plus, the ferry rides are NOT cheap and are long (over an hour from Anacortes to San Juan).
So, we decided to take a whale watching tour instead! Here the tours rarely leave the Puget Sound so we knew we’d see lots of coastlines, islands, etc. in addition to orcas and possibly gray whales.
Well, it turns out the day was very foggy along the sound, so we couldn’t go there and wouldn’t have seen anything had we gone. Instead we got a tour of the northern part of the sound where it connects to Canadian waters. We circled San Juan island and Orcas island as well as many smaller islands. Many of the smaller islands have a population even though they don’t have roads, ferry service, electricity or water! Folks who live on these islands must truck in their water and use generators, and have boats to get to the mainland.
Even though we saw no whales, we did see several bald eagles perched in trees, and many harbor seals. We also saw some salmon pens where they raise salmon. Very interesting and beautiful area!!
