Lopez Island is accessible only by boat, and for many the primary way to get there is by the Washington State Ferry which embarks for the San Juan Islands in Anacortes, WA. The Anacortes Ferry Terminal is 98 miles north of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), which takes approximately two hours +/- thirty minutes for traffic. If you’re interested in carpooling but aren’t sure who to travel with, please let us know on your RSVP and we’ll help coordinate transportation and connect you with someone local who’ll be heading up too—very probably someone you already know!

Ferry fares vary depending on if you plan to walk-on or drive-on, how many passengers are in the vehicle, and the passengers’ ages, so check out this page to determine your cost. Fares are round trip, so you’ll only need to pay heading to Lopez and won’t need to pay again to get back. If you’re driving on, we strongly recommend making a reservation, which you should do as early as possible. The sailing schedule and reservations for summer aren’t available yet, but we expect them to be posted April 18th, which would be an ideal time to reserve. You will need to make a WSDOT account to make a reservation, which can be done in less than a few minutes online. Reservations aren’t needed for walk-ons.

There will be three opportunities to reserve as reservations are released in three tiers. The first tier becomes available at 7 AM two months prior to the start of the summer sailing season.  Second tier is released at 7 AM two weeks prior to the sailing date. Third tier at 7 AM two days before sailing. The same number of reservations are released at each of the three tiers.

There’s no penalty for canceling a reservation so long as you cancel before the deadline, which is 5 PM the day before sailing. When you arrive at the terminal, your reservation confirmation code will be scanned, and you’ll then pay your fare.   

Be sure to get in line at least 30 minutes before your reservation time or your reservation may not be honored and you’ll very likely end up in the standby line, which can delay your boarding by numerous hours. (Folks without reservations will probably eventually get on a boat by sailing standby, but it can require a long wait in line and is not guaranteed during the peak summer season.)

When you review the sailing schedule, please note that not all vessels stop at Lopez Island, nor do all vessels have the same number of car spaces available. When planning your arrival, refer to the Westbound schedule selecting a sailing that starts at Anacortes and stops at Lopez. When returning home, refer to the Eastbound schedule selecting a sailing that stops on Lopez with Anacortes as its final destination.

Reservations are only available for westbound sailings, so you will not be able to reserve a spot for your return journey. Plan to get in line at the Lopez terminal at least 1.5 hours prior to your intended eastbound sailing. For these eastbound sailings, using the legend to determine how many spaces each boat has available is helpful in predicting how likely you are to get on your desired boat, or how early you might want to get in line. The Anacortes lane is the far right lane, and it’s likely there will already be a large line of cars formed when you arrive (stretching back to the end of the parking lot or even a good bit up the road), which is the line you should enter. You may leave your car parked in line and walk down to the terminal to purchase drinks or snacks from the vending machine if you like, though it can be a decently long walk with the long summer lines.

If you need to be back by a specific time on Sunday, we recommend walking-on instead of driving-on as it is ultimately very difficult to assure which boat you’ll end up on for the return journey if traveling by car. If you do decide to leave your car at the Anacortes terminal to walk-on both ways (you can pay to leave it in their lot) and you need help arranging transportation from the Lopez ferry terminal to your destination (our venue to camp, your lodging, etc.), please let us know!

**Very important disclaimer about ferries**

In the last several years, the Washington State Ferries along the Anacortes/San Juan Island route have faced severe staffing and vessel shortages which remain ongoing. This unfortunately has caused some summer sailings to be delayed, greatly delayed, or outright canceled. When selecting your sailing date and time, please take this into consideration as it’s not improbable you may run into ferry delays yourself. If you sail Saturday, we strongly advise choosing a morning sailing to ensure you arrive before the ceremony; you will be able to arrive to the venue early if you do. But we also suggest arriving Friday or before, if you can, to allay any travel-related stress and be sure you’re able to arrive on time.

On the day of your sailing, within a few hours prior to your sailing time, you’ll be able to view real-time data to see if your boat is arriving as expected.

This section turned into something of a short novel, we apologize about that! If you have any ferry questions, don’t hesitate to ask—email sarandilley@gmail.com and Sara or James will get back to you soon.