Hike Vendovi Island Preserve

This guided hike runs May through September, Thursday through Monday, aligned with the San Juan Preservation Trust’s public access window for the island. Spring brings wildflower blooms across the island’s native grasslands, including camas, paintbrush, and fawn lily, while summer offers the warmest weather for a swim off one of the island’s beaches. Since access is weather- and tide-dependent for any boat crossing, Stephanie plans each trip around current marine conditions.

Vendovi is one of the few San Juan Islands not served by Washington State Ferries, which keeps it far quieter than better-known hiking destinations in the archipelago. It’s a 217-acre nature preserve owned and protected by the San Juan Preservation Trust since 2010, reachable only by private boat, water taxi, or kayak. About 2,500 people visit each year, a small fraction of the traffic seen on ferry-accessible islands, which means the roughly 3 miles of trails through forest, grassland, and beach tend to feel genuinely secluded rather than crowded.

This is the main logistical hurdle for most visitors, since Vendovi has no ferry service and no public dock access beyond the preserve’s own small landing. Independent visitors typically need to book a separate water taxi from a company based in Anacortes or Bellingham, coordinate the timing with the preserve’s open hours, and hike unguided once they arrive. This tour removes that entire logistics problem: boat transportation is included in the tour price alongside the guide, so you don’t need to arrange a water taxi separately or navigate the trail system without local knowledge of what you’re looking at.

Yes. The hike is rated easy, covering roughly 3 miles with about 200 feet of elevation gain on a well-maintained trail system. The relaxed pace and frequent stops for wildlife viewing and photography make this manageable for a wide range of ability levels, though guests with specific mobility concerns should keep in mind that reaching the island involves a boat landing, which requires some basic mobility to step on and off the dock.

The tour includes Stephanie as your guide, the boat transportation to and from the island, and taxes and fees. Lunch and gratuity are not included, so bring a packed lunch to enjoy with the island’s water views.

Like Skagit Guided Adventures’ North Cascades Guided Hike, this tour is available by request rather than instant online booking. Contact Stephanie directly to check availability and reserve a date, since it runs on a more limited schedule tied to boat access and island conditions.

Groups are capped at six guests, and the tour runs with a single guest at no additional cost. This matters more here than on land-based tours, since the island preserve itself asks any group of ten or more to coordinate directly with its caretakers in advance — Skagit Guided Adventures’ small-group cap keeps every trip well under that threshold without extra logistics.

The tour meets in Anacortes, where the boat departs for the island.

Vendovi’s roughly 3 miles of trails wind through Douglas fir and maple forest, native grassland prairies, wetlands, and beaches including the aptly named Sunrise and Sunset Beaches. Because deer are essentially absent from the island, the forest understory is unusually lush, and nearly 60 bird species have been recorded here. Harbor seals regularly rest and pup on the island’s beaches, and river otters and eagles are commonly spotted as well. Along the way, Stephanie identifies the flora and fauna and shares the island’s history, and you’ll likely meet Elaina and TJ, the island’s resident caretakers, who can share what it’s like to live there seasonally.

Bring a backpack with lunch and snacks, water, and comfortable tennis shoes for the trail. Weather-appropriate clothing is important since conditions on the water and island can differ from what you’d expect on the mainland, and a swimsuit and towel are worth packing for warm summer days when a swim is an option.