Don’t be startled on your first visit to Lopez when people wave to you from their cars. This is “the Friendly Isle”—rural, hospitable, and small (15 miles long, 8 miles wide, 2,500 residents). Within the island’s 63 miles of shoreline, the Lopez landscape blends forests with rolling farmlands, and quiet bays and driftwood-strewn beaches with distant views of mountain ranges and snow-tipped Mount Baker.

Lopez’s natural beauty, seclusion, and simple lifestyle has attracted a variety of year-round residents—artists, craftspeople, musicians, farmers, fishermen, nature lovers—and, as islanders will be happy to tell you, eccentrics. Scandinavian farmers arrived here in the 1850s, drawn by the island’s gentle topography, and Lopez farms today raise an eclectic range of products, from sheep to llamas, wine grapes to apples, pears to kiwis.

You may want to schedule your Lopez visit to coincide with one of the island’s special annual events—the Tour de Lopez bicycle tour every spring or reputedly the best fireworks in the islands on the 4th of July, preceded by a parade guaranteed to excite kids and make adults nostalgic. Always scheduled for the last Saturday in April, the non-competitive rural road Tour de Lopez offers marked short and long routes through the island’s varied landscape—participants often echo the mother-daughter team who raved that it “really captures why we ride.”

And no wonder. Lopez offers the easiest cycling of the three main San Juan Islands. Consider bringing your bike for a day or weekend of scenic cycling or rent one from Lopez Bicycle Works or Village Cycles. (The interisland ferry from Orcas or San Juan is free for walk-on passengers and cyclists.)

Lopez Village

In Lopez Village, you’ll find a surprising choice of eateries and coffee shops in a compact space, along with a library, bakery, bookstore, and galleries—and, on Saturdays during the summer, the Lopez Farmers’ Market, for fresh produce and local arts and crafts. The Lopez Island Historical Society & Museum is here, and nearby are the 1887-built Center Church and the pioneer Union Cemetery.  This island treasures its history—drive or cycle by the many turn-of -the century homes along Center Road about 3 miles south of the village, or pass by the restored 1917 Port Stanley Schoolhouse a mile or so east.

Natural Wonders

Expect to see Bald Eagles and a great variety of water birds on Lopez, along with black-tailed deer and lots of rabbits. You may spot these on one of the island’s web of hiking trails, many near or along the shore (the same terrain that makes for somewhat easy cycling makes for plenty of opportunities for not-too-strenuous hiking). Whether you visit with family and friends or you’re in search of solitude, Lopez’s many parks (some of them well-kept secrets) fill the bill, from Agate Beach County Park with its soothing sound of waves over pebbles to the trails and bluffs of Shark Reef Sanctuary, where you’re likely to spot seals and often times sea lions. Or launch your kayak to explore the island’s inlets and paddle around the unspoiled paradise of one of the nearby National Wildlife Refuge islands (no two-footed creatures allowed) for glimpses of Pigeon Guillemots, Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants, and harbor seals.