Sidewalking Skagit County
Since we took the trip to Newfoundland this year we did not get out and do quite as much camping as we would normally do. We did, however, manage to combine a trip to see family on the mainland with a camping trip down to a little state park south of Bellingham called Bay View. I had never been to Bay View State Park on Padilla Bay before despite it just being a forty minute drive from the Peace Arch border crossing. One of the big benefits of the park is its proximity to three of the bigger towns in Skagit County: Anacortes, La Conner and Mt. Vernon.
Bay View State Park is quite a nice state park. If you have never stayed at one of Washington State’s parks you will find them to have a fair bit of amenities that would align with our premiere provincial parks like Rathtrevor. There are clean washrooms with hot showers, a small store, activities and most have full hook-ups for RVs. Our site didn’t have full-hookup, but it was very close to the washrooms and had a brand new picnic table. Despite the fire ban in BC and Whatcom County to the north, I was surprised to see many people having campfires. We didn’t partake due to the risk, but apparently Skagit county was doing things differently. It did make me a little nervous at night to be honest. From the campground, it was a short walk under an overpass to the beach, which again had washrooms and picnic tables and quite a large open grass area where people were often flying kites. Padilla Bay is a mudflat so when the tide is out almost the entire bay is just kilometres of brown mud but when the tide comes in over the mud up to the shore it makes for some extremely pleasant swimming water. We spent almost every afternoon at the beach as the tide came in enjoying the water. During the mornings, we explored the three nearby towns which is what I was going to focus on for the article.
Anacortes
The first morning we drove the twenty minutes into the town of Anacortes. Most Victorians will be at least familiar with the name, as this is where, when it was operating, the Washington State ferry from Sidney would arrive. I will likely do another post on the missing ferry service soon. I have taken the ferry from Sidney to Anacortes before, but have always just driven past the town and never gone into see it before.
Since it was a Monday morning, it was quite quiet, but the downtown is lovely. Lots of cool little shops and restaurants. The one place that was buzzing was the Calico Cupboard Café. It is one of three, with locations in La Conner and Mt. Vernon as well. The Anacortes location was the only that we visited. I popped into the tourist centre after I had my coffee and had a lovely chat with the person there. They recommended a hike up the nearby Cap Sante Hill which would give a view over the city, so we did that. It was not a long hike from the main street at all, through woods that look like you could be anywhere on Southern Vancouver Island. The view from the top gave you a view out over the city and back across Padilla Bay as well. There is a large oil refinery in Anacortes and you can see it clearly from up here. After the hike we took the road back down (because you can drive up to the view point if you want to) and walked past quite a few beautiful homes before ending up back downtown. The area around the harbour is actually quite a bit more industrial than I thought it would be. Definitely seems that Anacortes would be quite the employment centre with all that is going on here. After leaving town we drove through Washington Park, which has a loop road that hugs the coastline. I would say it is similar to Stanley Park in size, but much more wild. There are apparently some great hikes through the park which I will try and do another time, however we wanted to get back to the campsite for some swimming.
La Conner
The next morning we decided that we would try and see both La Conner and Mt. Vernon. I have heard about La Conner my whole life as a great place to visit but I had never been there despite it being so close to the border.
We had a pretty epic entry into La Conner. Just as we were entering the outskirts of town a fire truck came screaming past us. As we got to the main street we could see black smoke rising in a huge plume and as we turned the corner away from the smoke we could see a camper with flames shooting out of the top of it. We parked as far from the fire as we could and got out of the car The air was filled with the smell of burning plastic. Apart from the dramatic scene, the actual town was absolutely beautiful. I would suggest that it is what Cowichan Bay would be if it was about 10 times larger. La Conner is set on the Swinomish Channel that divides the Washington State mainland from Fidalgo Island. 1st Street, which is the main shopping street in La Conner, is just off the waterfront. One amazing aspect to the town is that they have built a boardwalk that follows along the waterfront with shops and restaurants having access both off of 1st Street and off of the boardwalk. It is truly a charming little town.
After walking along the boardwalk and checking out the very fun Nasty Jack’s antique store, we headed into the Museum of Northwest Art. The museum is dedicated to the Northwest School which was an artist movement in Washington State in the early 20th century. That said they have moved beyond that limited selection of artists and added many other amazing pieces of art from the area. It is a beautiful gallery with an amazing giftshop. Entrance is free, but it is such a nice museum that you really should give them a donation. After leaving the gallery, we wandered the main street of La Conner for a while longer, stepping into many of the eclectic shops. If you are in the area I would definitely stop into La Conner, it is a little jewel of a town and not to be missed. I can’t believe it took me so long to go there.
Mt. Vernon
After visiting La Conner, we drove through the flat farmland of the Skagit Valley until we arrived in Skagit County’s largest city, Mt. Vernon. Anyone that has driven down the I5 knows Mt. Vernon, as the highway skirts right next to the downtown. Despite the proximity to the highway, I have never actually been into the city. Approaching it from the west you need to cross the Skagit River on the Mt. Vernon Bridge. As soon as you cross the bridge, you directly enter the downtown. We parked on South 1st Street just across from the Skagit Valley Food Co-Op. Since we had spent the morning in La Conner, it was time for lunch and the Co-Op had everything you need for a family sidewalk meal.
After eating we explored the town. It was a beautiful little city with lots of shops and stores. I stopped into Temperate Habits Brewing Company to get some beer. It was a very busy place for a Tuesday at lunch. They filled up a can of their local IPA (which turned out to be very good) and I went back out into the town.
Mt. Vernon was founded in the late 1800s as a logging community, though now as the county seat in Skagit County it is more of a hub city focused mostly on the region’s farming. There are a lot of similarities between Mount Vernon and nearby Bellingham, though according to at least one of the locals I spoke to, Bellingham has a younger population. After walking the extent of S. 1st Street we walked back towards where we had parked along the river boardwalk. The boardwalk looked out over the Skagit River and back towards the Mt. Vernon Bridge. It seemed as though it had been upgraded recently. There was a huge plaza that had another big brewpub on it that I can imagine would be quite the vibrant place on a summer evening. Mt. Vernon was definitely a bigger and more interesting place than I was expecting and I only wish we had more time to spend wandering into its stores and meeting people. I will definitely be less likely to just rush by next time I am driving down the I5.
Overall in our few days in the area I had a great time. It was fun to go somewhere not too far away and still have a completely new adventure. Have you vacationed in Skagit County? If I were to go back where did I miss and should check out next time? Let me know in the comments!