I took a four day trip to San Juan Island for my 38th birthday and had the best birthday of my life.. My goal for the trip was to see foxes, and as you can see I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams... A mom fox has her den in the park and I got to observe her busily hunting for her five 6 week old kits while they napped and played by the trail. Obviously they are super habituated to humans, but these photos were taken with a telephoto lens from a healthy distance. Most people were keeping their distance and even creating a bit of a social trail to avoid the area the kits were hanging out in. Honestly, I could have watched them forever, but I was with my girlfriend and she didn't have the same rapt attention that I did. lol. I forced her to stay for quite a while though. 

We actually first found the foxes by chance on a longer hike on 5/14, but I made her come back again on 5/16 before our ferry left because I couldn't get enough of the cuteness. I'm making a separate trip report for this trip just so I can share some pictures with you all. I'll make another trip report for the hike we did 5/14. It was VERY HARD to choose photos for this trip report. lol.

The park itself is very nice in its own right with a cute small lighthouse, lovely coastal views, and a trail to the water where we saw great tidepools with crabs, anemones, starfish, sculpins, chitons and limpets.

San Juan Island is a magical place and I loved my trip here. Thanks to WTA user Maddy for their trip report last year... I bookmarked early May as a good time to visit the island in hopes of finding baby foxes and it payed off. Doesn't hurt that it coincides with my birthday. :)

First hike of my San Juan Island birthday trip! I combined the four hikes listed into one 9ish mile mega hike (mostly on trail with just a couple spots of brief road walking). My Gaia route is in the pictures so you can see how I linked it up. It was a gorgeous hike with ocean bluffs, beach tidepools, flowery meadows, pretty forests, a lighthouse, wildlife sightings... pretty much everything one could ask for in a day hike. :)

We parked at American Camp and walked down to Grandma's Cove, to begin. I got very distracted looking at tidepools on the beach... I've never seen so many anemones in one place! Above Grandma's Cove, swallows swooped around the cliffs and over the water. We kept to the bluffs on the way to South Beach, where we ate lunch at a picnic table while enjoying beautiful views of the Olympics in the distance. We also saw a deer around here. Took a slightly indistinct trail up towards the road where we connected to the Mount Finlayson Trail. Reached the summit (such that it was... all 295 ft of elevation lol) and continued on towards Cattle Point Lighthouse. The views from Mount Finlayson were super pretty... Reminded me a little of Ireland with the coastal cliffs, green hills, and the lighthouse. We also saw a LOT of caterpillars on some of the scrubs up here... I'll include a picture... anyone know what species they are? 

Descended back to the bluffs, which we followed to the lighthouse, where we took another break. After leaving the lighthouse, I turned a corner on the trail and was astonished to see baby foxes sleeping right next to the trail, while momma fox was out hunting. They were so amazingly cute. I had really wanted to see foxes on this trip and I was so so happy. I made a separate trip report for Cattle Point Lighthouse (we came back again later in the trip, so it's not really cheating) to show off baby fox pictures. If I had been alone I would have just sat and watched foxes all day (the joys of hiking alone... no one to be impatient with me lol) but I was with my girlfriend so I took pity on her and continued our hike. We briefly walked on the road back up to the Mount Finlayson Trail, which we took until it intersected with the trail going down to Jakle's Lagoon. The trail here was super pretty forest... Just in general, the forests I saw on San Juan Island were lovely, and I'm picky about my forests. lol. The lagoon was really pretty with tons of driftwood about.

We took the same trail as earlier down towards South Beach, then took the upper meadow trail back to American Camp. Here we saw 3 more foxes, poking around in rabbit burrows (I think) looking for an easy meal. It was kind of wild, though, because the adult rabbits had ZERO fear of the foxes... There were dozens of rabbits chilling in the meadow, and the foxes were just weaving amongst them and none of them seemed perturbed. My theory is the rabbits know they're faster than the foxes so it's not really worth the energy to try to go for them? Either way, it was WILD to see foxes sitting right next to rabbits like it was no big deal. 

Very exciting and magical day for me!

Trails go through an open meadow with a breath-taking view of the sound, the lighthouse, the neighboring islands and the Olympics. Meadows and the sea as far as you can see. Highly recommend a stroll through and to immerse yourself in the open air filled with bird chirps, sound of waves and the wind through the meadow.

A family we encountered reported the sighting of a fox, but unfortunately we didn't get to see it. A couple of harbor seals popped their heads above surface here and there as we walked along the shore around the lighthouse.

Nettles and Indian Lettuce everywhere, and you see lupine leaves capturing dews like glass beads. Lupines must be beautiful in the summer.

Cattle Point on the south end of San Juan Island is an interesting place for a mountain guy like me. The concept that the land "ends" is strange and the fact there are unknown creatures in the water blows my mind. Well, not all unknown.

We saw a bunch of seals (at least one must have been named Ezekiel) swimming amongst the kelp. A couple were clearly interested in us land mammals and came closer, but never too close.

The trail from Cattle Point itself doesn't appear to connect to the lighthouse (unless there's a way to get from the beach up the bluff) so we went north just a bit and looped through the grass. There were lots of fox dens, but no foxes. And the grass wasn't really grass as much as it was horsetails without the floofy parts.

It's a super short trail, but definitely highlights the differences between the mainland and an island.

Combined sections of these trails on San Juan Island and what a treat.  The views were spectacular and the terrain so diverse.  The section on American Camp is a National Historic Park.  It’s wide open fields like a prairie but with sweeping view of the Straight of Juan de Fuca that lead down to a beach filled with logs. I then parked on the main road about a 1\2 mile past the Jakle Lagoon parking area - and hiked the high ridge leading to Cattle Point Lighthouse.  This section is not to be missed - with unobstructed views of the Salish Sea and the mountains beyond.  Then I turned back, crossed the road and hiked up to the top of the Mt Finlayson trail with a small section of nice shaded pine.  I started down to the Third Lagoon trail but as I was contemplating the very steep decline knowing I had to return on the incline, a fox ran across my path about 20 yards ahead (not a fan).  That made me turn around and just take in the views at the top instead.  It’s beautiful up there. ;). There are more side trails to explore off of all these trails, too.  If you get a clear day like I did, you will not be disappointed.