Kayak Camping: Shaw, Lopez, James Islands: Shaw Spencer

My general plan was to do a circumnavigation of Shaw Island. I had three days for camping, but Shaw would not take that long so I also planned a spur out to Lopez Island. I walked onto the early ferry from Anacortes to Orcas Island, pulling my wheeled boat.

The first day’s route ended at Shaw Island County Park:

The view of the Olympic Mountains from the campground.

It was unusually warm weather for April. The parks reservation system doesn’t open until May however, and kids are still in school, so even with the good weather very few people were out camping. This first night I was the only one at the campground (and subsequent nights I saw hardly anybody in the evening either).

The second day’s route to Spencer Spit State Park:

Stopped off at a small island along the way (mi 9).

The view from my campsite at Spencer Spit was the best in the whole park.

At the base of the spit looking northeast.

The advantage of doing kayak camping near a Washington State Ferry route is you get excellent cell phone service. All during this trip the service was better than I get at work. It allowed me to keep the family up-to-date with my status.

I realized at this point that I was already partway back to Anacortes, so I changed plans to continue that direction to James Island State Park.