I decided to start this project in the San Juan Islands. I made time to visit Spencer Spit State Park on Lopez Island as a day trip on my way to Friday Harbor, where I am spending a long weekend vacation.

A quick word about this project: I’m an insatiable traveler. Typically that plays out across the world, but here we are in 2020 and the safe and reasonable thing to do is to stay close to home. I am fortunate to live in a state with a wealth of beautiful travel opportunities. This summer, I finished a similar project: driving all of Washington’s state highways (sorry, no blog for that), which brought me into all corners of the state. As I was lamenting the impending end of that project, I passed one of those brown signs that points to a state park and inspiration struck.

Spencer Spit is one of the few parks in the San Juans that is accessible by car. (I am upping my kayaking game so I can visit the nearly two dozen parks that are accessible by water only!)

Even so, on this fall day, the park was far more popular with seagulls than humans. I spent most of an hour in the park before seeing another person.

For more information:

• State Parks web site