08/16/2026
What's on the other side of a 2.5-mile open-water crossing? The best boat-in campsite in Washington.
Sucia Island sits just north of Orcas in the San Juans: a horseshoe of sandstone coves, fossil beaches, and 60 campsites you can only reach by water. Launch from North Beach, time the slack current, and you're pulling your kayak onto Shallow Bay's sand about an hour later. The rock here is so storied that Washington's first dinosaur fossil came out of it.
Late August is the window. The Salish Sea is as settled as it gets all year, the crowds thin mid-week, and the island's potable water runs through September. One honest caution: that channel is real open water with real current, roughly 50 to 55°F. Dress for immersion and cross on the morning slack.
We pack the Explorer Dry Bag for trips like this because hatches are not dry places, and a sleeping bag that crossed a channel should come out exactly as dry as it went in.
Full crossing beta, coordinates, campsite details, and the gear list are on the blog.
Who's claiming a cove before the season closes out? 🛶
