Spencer Spit State Park is a public recreation area ran under the Washington State Parks. It covers (a total of 7,840 feet of shoreline) on the eastern shore of
Lopez Island
Lopez Island is the third largest of the San Juan Islands and an unincorporated town in San Juan County, Washington, United States. Lopez Island is in land area. The 2020 census population was 3,156, though the population swells in the summe ...
Washington
Washington most commonly refers to:
* George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States
* Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A ...
. It overlooks the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The
state park
State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "Federated state, state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on accou ...
lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...
that provides a migratory stop for waterfowl, including
Bonaparte's gull
Bonaparte's gull (''Chroicocephalus philadelphia'') is a member of the gull family Laridae found mainly in northern North America. At in length, it is one of the smallest species of gull. Its plumage is mainly white with grey upperparts. Durin ...
s. Other local fauna include
great blue heron
The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbea ...
s and
kingfisher
Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species living in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...
s.
Camping
The park has 37 spaces for tent camping with fire pits, one dump station and two restrooms. There are no showers or hookups. Most of the park's tent sites are large and private. Seven walk-in beach sites have limited privacy. The park provides two group camps. The large one accommodates up to 50 people and has ten walk-in sites with a large grassy common area. The small group camp accommodates up to 20 people and has three walk-in sites, one of which is an Adirondack (three-sided) shelter with eight bunks. Check-in time is 2:30 p.m. while check-out time is 1 p.m. Park quiet hours are 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Campers cannot leave the park after 10 p.m.
Day Use
The park provides two kitchen shelters without electricity and 15 unsheltered picnic tables. The kitchen shelters include four picnic tables, a barbecue grill and fire pit. Water is available nearby. Picnic tables with fire pits are located on the spit and the beach site has six picnic tables.
There are also two miles of Cascadia Marine hiking trails. The park requires a Discover Pass for vehicles. Hours are 8 a.m. to dusk in the summer. The park is closed Oct through March (specific dates vary yearly).
Recreational Amenities
There are twelve mooring buoys on the
Cascadia Marine Trail
The Cascadia Marine Trail is a water trail on Puget Sound.
Created in 1993, it is designated as one of the 16 National Millennium Trails and suitable for day or multi-day trips. It has over 50 campsites to visit.
Southern Resident Orcas
The southern resident orcas, also known as the southern resident killer whales (SRKW), are the smallest of four communities of the exclusively fish-eating ecotype of orca in the northeast Pacific Ocean. The southern resident orcas form a closed s ...
pod passing by.
Mammals include chipmunks, deer, rabbits, raccoons, otters, and squirrels.