Orcas or Killer Whales (they’re actually dolphins) are a big deal in Washington State. They’re such a big deal that the Seattle area transit card is called the ORCA card.
During the summer we headed north for a weekend to do some whale watching on the Salish Sea. For our tour, we booked Western Prince which runs small group 3-4 hour whale watching tour boats from Friday Harbor, WA. If you’re in the Seattle area, and have a couple of days, I highly recommend driving up to Friday Harbor and taking a whale watching tour around the San Juan Islands, the Salish Sea, and out to the US/Canada border.
Friday Harbor is a very pretty town on San Juan Island, WA and worth a visit even if you don’t plan to go whale watching. The town is most famous for being the setting for the Free Willy movies (and slightly less famous for being the setting for Practical Magic). I don’t know about you guys but as a child when I first saw Free Willy I thought it was a cool movie. As an adult, especially after watching Blackfish, I’m horrified that anyone let a child get that close to an orca and I’m so glad I’ve never been to SeaWorld.
This wasn’t my first time whale watching but, this was the first time I successfully captured anything on camera. Wildlife photography in nature is hard. I really admire the professionals who turn out all those great pictures you see in publications like National Geographic. In the wild, you need patience and lightning-fast reflexes to capture great shots.
Getting There: Roadtrip!
There’s a long way and a short way to drive from Seattle to Friday Harbor. No matter which route you drive, you’ll need a take at least one ferry. Our route to Friday Harbor involved two ferries because I wanted to take the scenic route across Whidbey Island and see Deception Pass. We also spent the weekend in Friday Harbor so we were in no rush.
Ferry arriving Mukilteo Waterfront Clinton-Mukilteo Ferry Cloudy Cruising Deception Pass Deception Pass Anacortes-Friday Harbor Ferry
Orcas, Humpbacks, Bald Eagles Oh My!
We spotted orcas! They were traveling somewhere and moving quickly. This meant the orcas had zero time for us and there wasn’t going to be any chance of the whales jumping in and out of the water like you see in nature documentaries–much to everyone’s disappointment. Only the orca calf (she was a few weeks old at the time and still had the orange/black colors of a newborn) popped out of the water for a bit. I imagine her mom yelled at her to keep it moving and the baby had to dive back underwater.
Family of Orcas 
Orca calf born in July 2019 
That dorsal fin is 6ft high 
Traveling Orcas 
Heading out of our view
We also spotted this humpback whale who definitely wanted to play and even obliged us with some jumps. BUT I could only ever get photos of his tail.
At the end of our tour, on our way back to Friday Harbor, we spotted harbor seals having an afternoon nap lounging while a pair of bald eagles (USA! USA!) perched on a rock and judged the seals for napping. Bald eagles are actually very majestic creatures and they definitely kept an eagle eye (haha) on our boat as we sailed past.
Bald Eagles and Harbor Seals Bald Eagles Harbor Seals Napping
It was a great few hours.
A Note
I’m no environmentalist but I’ve been known to recycle and compost (when bins are clearly marked). I feel like it would be wrong for me to write this without leaving you with this little bit of information (and I promised our boat naturalist I would write something when I shared these photos):
The orcas we spotted are part of the Southern Resident family and are native to the Salish Sea. These Southern Resident orcas are currently the only endangered killer whales in the world. The whales saw their numbers drop significantly when whales from this family were captured from this area and shipped to marine theme parks, like SeaWorld, all over the world. Unlike other killer whales the Southern Resident orcas only eat chinook salmon and, no thanks to climate change and pollution, their food supply is now running out so many whales are starving to death. If you’re interested in learning more and helping please visit here and here.
Some Cheer
Now that you’ve been bummed out, please enjoy this song from the Free Willy soundtrack.
Up next on the blog, some calming photos of the landscape of San Juan Island that you can use for meditation or as a phone/laptop/tablet background.
