Things to Do in Anacortes in August After Festival Weekend

Sunday at 5 p.m. on Commercial Avenue, the last booth artist is folding a canopy while a line still runs out the door at every restaurant with a patio. Monday at 8 a.m., you can park in front of the library, walk into a coffee shop without waiting, and hear gulls again.

That shift is the point of this post. The Anacortes Arts Festival brings 80,000 to 100,000 visitors during the first weekend in August, and then it ends. What follows is roughly four weeks that most guidebooks skip and most residents underuse: the quietest, driest, longest-lit stretch of the year on Fidalgo Island, with the town's full infrastructure still turned on.

The week Commercial Avenue exhales

The festival footprint stretches down Commercial Avenue from 10th Street all the way to 2nd Street, and the recovery is visible by Tuesday. Sidewalk seating opens up. The Depot Arts Center parking area, which becomes overflow during the weekend, goes back to being a normal lot. The mid-day walk from the marina up to 6th Street stops feeling like a shoulder-check exercise.

If you have out-of-town family who came in for the weekend and stayed, this is when you actually get to show them the town. Take the walk from Seafarers Memorial Park along the Guemes Channel path in the morning, then reserve a table somewhere downtown for dinner without needing to plan it three days out.

Where the trails go quiet after 10 a.m.

The Anacortes Community Forest Lands are the reason August works here. The system covers more than 2,800 acres, accessible, free, and laced with over 50 miles of trails, and the network wraps three lakes worth knowing by name: Whistle, Heart, and Cranberry.

A few practical notes for the next four weeks:

1. Weekday mornings after 10 a.m. clear out fast. The dog-walk regulars are done, the trail runners are back at their desks, and the mountain-bike traffic is mostly weekends. 105 of the 125 trails are designated for mountain biking, so if you want to walk without stepping aside every few minutes, pick a weekday.
2. Cranberry Lake sits closest to town and stays the coolest on hot afternoons because of tree cover. This heavily forested site near the city center contains Cranberry Lake, approximately 27 acres, and several other small lakes and bogs.
3. The Tommy Thompson Trail is the flat, paved counterweight to the forest. It runs from downtown Anacortes to and across Fidalgo Bay. If you are walking from downtown, the first mile or so is urban. The scenery really begins in South Anacortes as the trail approaches the bay. Locals with a stroller or a hip that no longer likes elevation gain use it as the default sunset loop.

If you have not looked at a map of the ACFL in a few years, print one before you go. Cell service inside the interior is not reliable and the intersections start to look alike after the fourth junction.

Saturday morning still belongs to 6th & R

The Anacortes Farmers Market runs at 6th & R Ave on Saturday's from 9-2pm during summer months, and August is when it is at its fullest. Berries have peaked, tomatoes are finally on, corn is showing up from Skagit growers, and the flower booths carry dahlias that will not exist in October. The food-truck tables at the back stay busy but not crushing.

Two things about the market that regulars know and newcomers do not. First, park south of 8th Street and walk in from R Avenue. The lots closer to the entrance turn over slowly. Second, the good stone fruit is gone by 11 a.m. If you show up at 1:45 for the last-hour discount, you are shopping for eggs and honey, not peaches.

Three viewpoints that read differently in August light

Everyone who lives here has been to all three of these. The argument for revisiting them in the next four weeks is the light. August evenings drop the sun into the Rosario Strait at an angle that rewards a specific stop.

Cap Sante at golden hour

The 37-acre park at the top of the Cap Sante promontory is Anacortes's most accessible dramatic viewpoint, and on a clear day the panorama stretches from Mount Baker south to Mount Rainier, with the working harbor below and Fidalgo Bay spreading east. On an August evening, aim to be at the lookout roughly 45 minutes before sunset. The view takes in the marina below, the Twin Sisters, Mount Baker, and on clear days the San Juan Islands to the west. Bring a jacket. The rocky point catches wind that the parking area does not.

Mt. Erie for the panorama

Mt. Erie Park spans 160 acres. At the top of Mt. Erie, elevation 1,270 ft, choose from four viewing areas and be rewarded with spectacular views in all directions. Erie is the summit drive you do when someone visits and asks, in that particular tone, whether Fidalgo actually has mountains. The four platforms each face a different direction, so if you have half an hour, walk all of them rather than stopping at the first.

Washington Park's loop road

Washington Park sits on the far west end on the Rosario Strait, and only roughly 41 acres of the park's 200 acres have been developed, but a 2.3-mile paved road runs through it for automobiles, runners, bikers, and walkers to enjoy. Drive the loop once slowly with the windows down, then park at the west overlook and walk the shoreline path. The whole thing takes an hour and puts you at eye level with the ferries running to the San Juans.

Dinner without the two-week wait

The festival weekend books out every table in town. The second week of August is when the reservations page loosens. A short list of what is worth using that opening on.

Tide & Taste is the newest addition worth building an evening around. Chef Nick LaLonde, best known in Skagit County for his artisan bakery, Good Bagels, opened the restaurant on Jan. 9 at 414 Commercial St., formerly the home of American-style cafe The Nest, and it operates as a contemporary, ingredient-focused restaurant. It is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily at 414 Commercial St. in Anacortes. Reservations are strongly recommended.

A'Town Bistro at 418 Commercial keeps drawing quiet, consistent praise for its farm-to-table plates, and the outdoor seating is one of the better patios on the strip. Adrift, a few blocks south, does the locally sourced burger and comfort-food side of the same idea and works well as a walk-in on a weekday.

For water instead of walls, Anthony's at Cap Sante Marina is the reliable pick when someone wants a Northwest seafood dinner with the boats right there. Rockfish Grill on Commercial covers the brewpub end of the range without feeling like a brewpub. 13moons at 12885 Casino Drive Anacortes, WA 98221 is the fine-dining option out at Swinomish Casino & Lodge, with hand-cut Alder wood grilled seafood, meats and the freshest flavors for dining that the Northwest has to offer.

If you are hosting family and want to move the meal outside of downtown entirely, the drive out to the casino also gives you the Swinomish Channel on the way back at dusk, which is its own small event.

One more thing about August here

The reason all of this holds up as an actual month, and not just a two-week hangover from the festival, is the weather. Anacortes sits in a partial rain shadow and averages significantly less precipitation than Seattle, which shows up most clearly in late summer. The forest stays dry underfoot into September. The ferries run on time. The shoulder of the year that people from further inland assume must be wet here is, in fact, the driest thing going.

The four weeks between the festival tear-down and Labor Day traffic are the version of Anacortes that convinced most of us to stay. The tourists have their weekend, the town gets the rest of the month, and the calendar cooperates. If you have been meaning to walk the Whistle Lake loop, or drive Mt. Erie at sunset, or finally try Tide & Taste, this is the window.

If you are thinking further ahead than dinner, and wondering how a place like this fits into a longer plan, Christine Rasmussen has lived and worked in this corner of the North Sound since 2008 and is glad to talk when you are ready. Let's Connect.