Blake Island State Marine Park

Great first visit here at Blake Island. The park staff all around are very friendly and helpful.
There is also a plank salmon dinner at lunch and dinner in Tillicum Village with some good history of the local Coast Salish people but If you’re trying to get away from it all for a bit, this part of the island gets tours those times of day. 12p/​5p. Smells delicious though.
The island is good for a one or two night stay with a few trails and gorgeous sunsets and views of Mt. Rainier, The Olympics and Seattle. I would recommend a kayak journey if you can pack it in. Easy paddle around the island and the paddle from Alki Beach was pretty standard. There are spots reserved for kayakers exclusively just in case it’s crowded. Go mid-​week and it doesn’t seem an issue. There were only two other groups of campers on the west site the two nights I stayed and in mid-July.The island is a good stop for water and wildlife enthusiasts. Otters, porpoise and seals all hang out around the island and in the Puget Sound. Lots of birds dashing around the canopy and occasionally some sightings of raptors fishing.
The campsites include raccoon proof bins so if you use ‘em they get bored quick. As of last week, the plumbing is not connected on the west side of the island. There is a vault toilet, however. And that makes these campsites super reasonable at $ 12/​night until they get the water turned on again. I’ve heard there is fishing as well but I had to leave my poles behind unfortunately due to space limitations. Definitely don’t forget your binoculars.

The low stars here is a bit perplexing, but whatevs. Here’s the nitty gritty!
* This place is POPULAR. Whether by boat, ferry, etc, it can fill up quickly. There is limited moorage so you may end up tying up to a friendly fellow or docking out in the bay and rowing yourself on in.
* The same goes for camping. The sites range from economic to premium and the main differences tend to be loooocation. The cheaper, the more in the sun you’ll be!
* RACCOONS. They are there, all day, all night long. You must put any scrap of food away because they WILL find it. The rangers provide animal-​proof containers for free, just ask. (As a side note, the wealth of raccoons is in thanks to campers and the park rangers do their best to limit this. The clever little mofos have learned to catch clams/​mussels as well. Docking this park for that is borderline mental).
*Ditto — there are deer who don’t give a shiz about humans. That doesn’t bug me but it bugs the weirdos who claim deer won’t eat if startled. This island proves otherwise.
* Rangers — they are THERE. They regulate the park quite well. If that irritates you, go somewhere else. Good Lord. They are doing their JOB.
The fun? The boaters are nice, the views are spectacular and the sites are great. The beaches are nice, the hiking trails are great and the views? GREAT. This an awesome state park. For all the reason. Oh, but CASH ONLY.

We took the Argosy cruise boat over and spent a Saturday night camping in the eastern campground adjacent to the marina. Tickets were $ 20 through Amazon Local. Not a bad deal. Other friends arrived by sail boat from Lake Union and another friend made the short trip from Alki by jet ski. Great views of Mt. Rainer all the way in.
The campsites are limited to 8 people per site but I doubt this is heavily regulated. I think we paid $ 35 per night, there’s also a group site that is $ 120 I think. Quiet hours go from 10pm-​7am. This is STRICTLY enforced. We were reminded by the ranger that the fine for excessive noise is $ 138…so this is good if you are looking for a little quiet and bad if you’re looking for a late night.
We took a little hike in search of two geocaches on the island. I thought this would take us about ½ hour. We wound up just about walking around the whole island and didn’t get back for 2 hours, we saw more deer than people though so that was nice.
Nightfall brought out the raccoons. They have no problem hopping up on your table for a bag of chips if you dare turn your back on them. Utilize the food storage garbage cans!!! Aggressive little bastards, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of them packing heat!
There is a volleyball court, but you need to bring your own net. Apparently the deer’s antlers get stuck in the net so the park doesn’t put them up.
We called ahead and found out that they were out of firewood. You’re not allowed to collect any firewood on the island so our buddy with the jet ski hauled over a canoe’s worth! Call ahead!
Overall this is a pretty nice campground. It’s a little pricey but there are some nice amenities… and a lot of other people too.

This was the first stop of our mini-​sailboat tour of the Puget Sound and the only place that was a State Park and not a marina.
You know those Argosy Tours that offer a Salmon Bake and Native American dancing — that’s the Blake Island Tour. Twice a day the almighty Argosy docks on Blake Island and the smell of alder-​planked salmon wafts from the only restaurant/​grocery/​souvenir shop on the island.
For those who love wildlife, dock at the marina and welcome the vermin raccoons with open arms. These guys were literally helping themselves to the smörgåsbord of food on the docked boats by jumping onto the boats, trying to get into the entrances and the portholes — even with humans present and gnashing their teeth. .
The second minus «half star» (this should really be a 3.5 stars) is just the popularity of this place. If you’re coming here for some peace and quiet, forget it. Tents upon tents and the marina almost at capacity. Of course you’ve got the option of anchoring, but with the water traffic, you’d have to anchor on the far side of the island.
The views are spectacular from the island, however, and there’s plenty of wildlife, from very tame deer that roam the picnic area to swallows making nests in the hollows of the rocks. We nearly walked the entire perimeter of the island during low tide. It was interesting to see the changes in the terrain. A nice stop if you’ve never been.

Wow, I must say this is one of the best campsites I have been. My friends and I sailed to Blake Island and spent a weekend there. There is 3 campgrounds on this island (east, south, and west). I stayed in the east campground because it is next to the marina. The east campground is roomy and clean. Some of the campsites are next to the water so you do have a good view of downtown Seattle and Mt. Rainier! You truly can’t find a better view than this.
The east campground’s campground has a bathroom facility with showers/​sand volleyball court/​beach/​kids playground/​bbq and picnic tables/​and store. It is very convenient. The campground is also very quiet at night… no rowdy groups when I was there.
The only down side is that this place has a HUGE raccoon problem. You have to put all the food in a wildlife container (which you can obtain one from the ranger’s station). There was 4 – 5 raccoons circling our campsite at night. Couple of them got really close and some of the girls got scared. However, none of them bothered us while we were sleeping.
I would highly recommend this place to everyone!