SerpApi.Org
Before 1913, Vashon Island and the smaller Maury Island right next to it were two separate pieces of land, joined only when the tide dropped low enough to walk between them. A causeway fixed that permanently. A century later, most people driving to the ferry still have no idea they’re crossing what used to be open water.
That’s the kind of place Vashon is — twenty minutes from West Seattle by boat, and somehow still the Puget Sound island everyone forgets to mention. This weekend gives you the best reason yet to go: the whole town shuts down for its biggest event of the summer.
Psst — we made you a West Coast Adventure Map. Nearly 1,900 of our favorite spots, already pinned, ready to load into Google Maps in two clicks — grab it here.
Getting there is barely a commitment
Washington State Ferries runs the Fauntleroy-Vashon route out of West Seattle, and the crossing itself takes about 20 minutes. Fares are only collected heading toward the island — the ride back to Fauntleroy is free — and a walk-on adult ticket runs $7.60.
Leave the car behind if you can. Summer weekends routinely add 20 to 40 minutes to the vehicle line at Fauntleroy, and Vashon’s flat-enough downtown corridor makes walking or biking off the boat a genuinely reasonable plan.
KVI Beach still plays by the old rules
The 1913 causeway, known locally as the Portage, is what turned Vashon and Maury into one continuous landmass for good. But a few miles north at KVI Beach, the tide still calls the shots — catch it low enough and a sandbar the size of a football field surfaces from the shallows of Tramp Harbor.
It’s one of the only real sand beaches on an island mostly ringed by pebbles and driftwood, which makes it the default spot for sandcastles, beachcombing, and a small salt marsh worth a slow look at the edges.
Point Robinson Lighthouse is still doing its job
Out on Maury Island’s northeast tip, Point Robinson Lighthouse has marked the halfway point between Seattle and Tacoma since a fog signal station first went up here in 1885. The 38-foot tower standing today dates to 1915, a near-twin of West Seattle’s Alki Point Lighthouse, and it was automated in 1978 — though the original fifth-order Fresnel lens is still mounted inside for anyone who tours it.
Tours run Sundays from mid-May through mid-September, and the 10-acre park around it has some of the best Mount Rainier views on the island on a clear day. Two of the old keeper’s quarters are even set up as vacation rentals if you want to sleep next to a working beacon.
The strawberry festival takes over the whole island this weekend
Vashon’s Strawberry Festival runs July 17–19 this year, and admission is free. Saturday’s parade kicks off at 10 a.m. with decorated floats, antique tractors, a Pony Club procession, and the unofficial mayoral race that’s become as much a tradition as the berries themselves.
For three days, the streets fill with live music, food booths, a beer garden, and a classic car show pulling in thousands of visitors from across the Sound. If you’ve never timed a Vashon trip around anything before, this is the weekend to start.
For the ambitious: earn the whole island by bike
Vashon’s perimeter loop draws serious road cyclists for a reason. Depending on the route you piece together, a full lap runs anywhere from about 32 to 45 miles with 3,000-plus feet of climbing, and some of the grades along the way hit 20 to 30 percent.
This isn’t a rental-bike-off-the-ferry kind of ride — it’s a legitimate workout that Cascade Bicycle Club builds organized rides around. But finish it and you’ve seen more of Vashon in an afternoon than most day-trippers manage in a full visit.
A fake island connected by a hundred-year-old causeway, a lighthouse still running on its original lens, and a strawberry parade this weekend — which one gets you on the ferry first?
Trip tips: grab a rental car for the drive to the Fauntleroy terminal, and lock in a hotel on the island or back in West Seattle before festival weekend books up.
Rules and fees change — always confirm current requirements before you go.
The post This Puget Sound island is a 20-minute ferry ride from Seattle, and it’s having its biggest weekend of the year appeared first on Washington is for Adventure.
