English Camp

Ten miles from Friday Harbor on the northwest side of San Juan Island [1], English Camp (also known as British Camp) includes a restored hospital, a picturesque reconstructed blockhouse right on the water’s edge, a commissary, an impressive formal garden, and a small white barracks.

The blockhouse and barracks are open 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. daily in the summer, closed the rest of the year. The location is a beautiful one, with protected waters on both sides of Bell Point—a sharp contrast to American Camp [2]—and spreading maple trees overhead.

The mile-long Mt. Young Trail leads from English Camp to the old British cemetery where six Royal Marines are buried, and then up through second-growth forests to 650-foot Mt. Young with fine vistas of the archipelago from the top. An almost-level nature path heads a mile out to the tip of Bell Point.