Worth Leaving Town For: 6 Highlights from an Anacortes Weekend

If you’re like me, Anacortes is a town you’re mostly familiar with from passing through on your way to the San Juan Islands Ferry. I had never actually spent much time exploring Anacortes itself.

To celebrate a recent wedding anniversary, my wife, Queen Esther, and I wanted to get out of town for the weekend without going too far. Anacortes is only a one hour drive from Everett. We knew there was a cute downtown, water views, and some outdoor rec. We decided to load up our bikes, ditch our kiddo (for the first time ever!), and hit the road.

Overall, we had a really great time. Especially considering we weren’t even there for a full 48 hours. Here are a few highlights we enjoyed the most:

Cap Sante Park

This is a real gem of a viewpoint. I was blown away. It was literally only a few minutes drive from town. 360-degree panorama views of the surrounding mountains and water. It was the perfect place to enjoy the sunset. Even if you were just driving past Anacortes or stopping by for lunch, this would be a quick and easy stop well worth the few extra minutes.

The Cabana

One of our favorite meals was at The Cabana, an Anthony’s outdoor restaurant overlooking the marina. It was a similar arrangement to how the Everett Anthony’s has the Woodfire next door. The Cabana was an awesome vibe for a sunny day meal. A large outdoor seating area adorned with umbrellas, a bocce ball court, throw in a mai tai and the best blackened fish tacos of your life, and life is good. There are great Anacortes restaurants in general, but on a sunny evening, this one hit the spot just right.

Tommy Thompson Trail

Saturday morning we dusted off our vintage road bikes and hit the Tommy Thompson Trail. If I had to pick one favorite from the trip, this would be it. The path is paved and wide. It starts right near the harbor in town and runs parallel to the street until the path breaks off into the woods along the water. The trail turns into what used to be an old train bridge that goes out across the water, so you have water on both sides of you. The bridge does have deck boards on it that made for a slightly bumpy ride for a spell, but it was well worth it.

It's a bumpy ride, but worth it // Garret Hunt

The trail was pretty short on a bike, 6.6 miles round trip. It was totally flat, too, so it would even be an easy walk if you had a couple of hours. We arrived at the end of the trail so quickly, we decided to keep biking another mile down an industrial road that conveniently goes straight to the Bastion Brewing Company.

Bastion Brewing Company

Bastion has a large selection of food and beers with plenty of great seating. We initially thought we would eat lunch there, but we got there so quickly we weren’t even hungry yet. We opted to just do drinks instead. Their Sky Pig IPA hit the spot.

On the bike ride back we stopped and put an overflowing apple tree to good use. As well as watch people net fishing off the shore. The short but enjoyable trail was so picturesque, I couldn’t believe I had never heard of it before.

Historic Downtown

The quaint historic Downtown has great food and cute shops. Not to mention some nice architecture and cool public art. We kept noticing wooden paintings and murals all over town. Turns out there was a well-loved local, Bill Mitchell who painted over 160 of these local icons. All while sitting in his wheelchair. Mitchell passed away last year, but his murals still grace the town. I had to take a photo of this one... the fanny pack got me.

Washington Park

The next stop was a short drive to Washington Park. A massive park with camping, hiking, and lookouts. We enjoyed checking out some of the viewpoints and hiked a short trail to a large marble monument. This is when it really hit me just how many madrone trees Anacortes is covered in. Their red flaky bark made for a distinctive contrast amongst the waterside views. One of the lookouts had a remarkable gnarled up twisty tree that was too perfect to not climb.

Believe it or not, there were a number of other notable stops we hit as well, but these ones topped the list. I should forewarn, Mount Eerie is a popular lookout as well, but the access road is currently closed to cars on weekends. We learned that the hard way and ended up trying to bike up the mountain to make it to the top before sunset. Probably not our greatest idea.

All in all, though, Anacortes has plenty to explore for a fun-filled weekend getaway. If you like the outdoors and quaint historic towns, you just might find Anacortes is worth leaving town for.

Vintage road bikes Vs. Mt Eerie // Garret Hunt

A side note on lodging, the Majestic Inn is the only hotel right in town (they also have a cool roof top lounge), but for about half the price we stayed at the Sunrise Inn less than a mile down the street. There were a number of affordable options. According to Linda War Bonnet, camping at Washington Park is a great option as well.