Vashon Island and Maury Island are both in King County but I’ve easily spent much more time on Whidbey and Camano islands, two counties away. That is about to change thanks to a Twittering Device mutual whose recent bike-packing trip piqued my curiosity about camping options I didn’t know existed.
Limited transit schedules meant I’d long postponed scouting a day trip to Dockton Forest and Maury Island Natural Area — those schedules requiring a long day trip or doing a multimodal trip that includes a long bike ride. Now that I followed in aforementioned Tweeter mutual Jawwwwwwsh’s footsteps with a mid-week trip of my own, I can say that I think a long day trip is absolutely worth it.
And I can also say that camping at Maury Island Marine Park (MIMP) is a new favorite outing and absolutely worth it. During my mid-week trip, I often had the entire beach to myself, and often had the entire park to myself — at least it felt like it.
As to be expected, weekend slots tend to book up. I can’t speak from experience but I’d bet that despite relative weekend popularity, MIMP still offers a good deal of relative peace and solitude, for two reasons. First, there are only seven campsites (including a marine campsite that is part of the Cascadia Marine Trail), placing a simple limit on the maximum number of folks you’ll be camping near. (Although most of the camp sites are close together, the park itself has plenty of room, elbow and otherwise.) Second, you must hike or bike (or paddle) in, and the elevation gain on the return to the park entrances is more hike in the park than walk in the park, limiting both day and overnight visitors. (And….heads up, transit trekking to here on a weekend is best done with a bicycle or booking to arrive on a Friday afternoon and depart on a Monday morning if your schedule allows, because….yup, transit schedules on these islands are not great.)
I’m working on adding this as a featured trip in The Transit Trekker Manual, with lots more details to make planning and enjoying as easy as possible. In the meantime, my own Tweete thread about the trip starts here (and ends with AliceLynx). You can also read my quick and sloppy trip report on the WTA site.
This post was edited to clarify and correct information about camp sites.
Transit Trekker 