It’s almost sac-religious NOT to sea kayak if you live in the Pacific Northwest. From the waters of Puget Sound right outside my back door, to the vast water wilderness of Johnstone Strait and British Columbia, I hope this growing selection of sea kayaking photos inspires you to get out and explore.

View photos at SmugMug

View a slideshow of these and more Sea Kayaking Photos

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Some abnormally pleasant days in Seattle offer splendid days for sea kayaking off West Seattle.

Kayak for two

Beached on Beach Drive in West Seattle

To see more sea kayaking photos from Seattle, British Columbia and beyond, click HERE

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I’ve heard it before, really, as I’m sure anyone who has paddled in ocean swells and prefers the aroma of salty air over the rush of white-water, has too. Mention the word sea kayaking to anyone who has never actually done it, and I’m sure you’ll get a similar response. Little do they know how exciting (thrilling even?) and dangerous sea kayaking can be. Don’t get me wrong, most of my sea kayaking trips tend to be in areas that offer solitude, wildlife and (relatively) calm waters, such as the secluded bays off of Vancouver Island or hugging the coastline of the Channel Islands (or right here in Puget Sound.) That’s not to say I haven’t been in situations where things went bad very quickly, when I was literally paddling UP and DOWN ocean swells, praying for dear life that my boat didn’t capsize. Things can go bad very quickly in a sea kayak.

What got me thinking about this was an article I flipped through in a recent edition of Sea Kayaker magazine. There was a story about a veteran paddler who got lost, and disappeared, while paddling around the Brooks Peninsula (the most western point of Vancouver Island and all of Canada.) Interestingly I was trying to plan a trip to this exact same area for the summer (a wedding got in the way.) Of course this doesn’t mean I won’t try and get up there. Every one of my Vancouver Island trips, whether by bike or boat, has been awesome. The island is so diverse, there is so much to do and explore, that I find it hard to believe people who have called Seattle home for decades, have never made the trip north.

Cape Cod National Sea Shore

My parents are lucky, for they live in a truly unique part of the US. Although I'm spoiled by the natural wonders of the Pacific Northwest, I'm always intrigued and captivated by the scenery in and around Nauset Beach and the rest of Cape Cod

8 Photos

Sea Kayaking Channel Islands National Park

Sea kayaking Channel Islands National Park, camping on Santa Cruz island

8 Photos

Blake Island Sea Kayaking

Sea kayaking around Blake Island off West Seattle.

6 Photos

Sea Kayaking Johnstone Strait Vancouver Island

The sea kayaking in British Columbia is spectacular and the thousands of inlets, coves, peninsulas, and nearby Johnstone Strait, make paddling around Vancouver Island some of the best in the world. This photo album consists of two separate sea kayaking adventure trips to the Broughton Archipelago, off the NE corner of the Island.

17 Photos

Kayaking Ross Lake, North Cascades

Ross Lake National Recreation Area is located in the heart of the North Cascades. Although not part of North Cascades National Park, it offers true wilderness lake kayaking. Surrounded by towering peaks and dotted with serene camp spots, Ross Lake runs north to the Canadian border.

9 Photos

Sea Kayaking Trip: Baja California

Unfortunately I don't have the original prints from this epic 17-day sea kayaking trip from Loreto to La Paz in Baja, Mexico, back in Dec 2000. I do have lots of memories though. This was really my first big self-supported 'wilderness' trip, one that opened my eyes to adventure travel. All sea kayaking photos were shot with a simply P&S film camera. I apologize for the very small viewing sizes. Hopefully I can uncover the original prints and rescan.

9 Photos

So, be careful if you’re going for a paddle. Although I ski and bike alone (resort ski, not backcountry ski) I rarely go sea kayaking by myself.

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It’s very easy to take certain things for granted. Here in Seattle we’re often so focused on traveling down to Mt Rainier, or somewhere in the Cascades, or maybe over the Cascades for some high desert warmth, that we often forget about this relatively small chunk of paradise to our west. Of course everything is relative. Olympic National Park isn’t necessarily small, it encompasses over 920,000 acres, 95% of which are designated as wilderness. If you’re willing to put in even a small amount of effort by hiking more than just a couple miles from the ranger station, you’re going to have A LOT of space to yourself.

But we’re not necessarily going to hike into one of the 60 named glaciers in the interior of the park. We’re packing the surfboards and sea kayaks (and the bikes for good measure) and driving to where the land meets the sea, where the Pacific ocean has, for thousands of years, molded the coastline into a stunningly rugged and beautiful piece of nature.

So stay in touch…and come back in a week or so for what I hope will be a dazzling display of photographs from Olympic National Park.

In the meantime, enjoy this sailing photo I captured as Jeannine, and hundreds of other brave sailors, sailed off below the looming Olympic mountains as part of the annual Swiftsure Yacht Race. The shot was taken just north of Victoria on Vancouver Island.

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I was just going through some old photographs and came across some scanned sea kayaking pictures from a trip back in 2000 with the Outdoor Program at the University of Oregon. The 17-day paddle, from Loreto to La Paz in Baja, Mexico, was truly an epic. This was probably my first big adventure. For the most part we were completely self-contained,  carrying all supplies for the entire trip. We were able to pick up fish from local fisherman every couple days but otherwise this stretch of pristine coastline on the Sea of Cortez was vastly empty. Starkly beautiful, aqua waters collided with the dusty desert mountains. Towards the end of the trip we were so low on food, one our members, an exchange student from Japan was eating his powdered milk and cheese…straight from the bag!

Disclosure: these photographs were scanned a while back from a small point and shoot camera. I have yet to uncover the originals, so these are unfortunately very small digital reprints

[View with PicLens]

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Ok, so I’ve never actually been lost in North Cascades National Park, but it wouldn’t be hard. With only one road, Highway 20, slicing the park in half, it encompasses nearly 685,000 acres. It’s huge, it’s beautiful and some sections are very remote. We won’t be getting lost, but tomorrow my my fiancee and I pack up the bikes for a short overnight cycling tour on the North Cascades Highway. Leaving from the town of Newhalem, on the wet side of the Cascades, we’ll arrive at some point later in the day in the old west town of Winthrop. The ride itself is ‘only’ about 75 miles in length, but it involves lots of ascending, climbing up and over the Cascades and descending into the high and dry dessert of central Washington. While getting the BOB ready for the tour (my bike trailer) I was distracted by some past photos of kayaking in Ross Lake, a stunning recreational area that is one of three sections that actually make up the North Cascades National Park Complex. So, although we’ll be a peddling and not paddling, here are some sea kayaking photos to remind everyone to get out and play

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My fiancee and I recently moved back to West Seattle from Whitefish, MT. Initially this was a very difficult move to handle, going from a small town nestled on the edge of the rockies and Glacier National Park, to clashing daily with thousands of other people trying to move in and around the city via car rather than bike. But as the weather slowly improves I begin to appreciate why Seattle is truly a unique place to live. Here’s just one reason –

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A friend of mine passed along a website for the Living Oceans Society, an environmental organization located on the pristine central coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. Recently the organization has been making a huge effort to educate the public and create awareness about the issue of oil tankers, oil rigs and (potential) oil spills located in this section of the British Columbia coast, an area of amazing biological diversity where the largest pod of northern orcas roam waters rich with salmon and snow-covered peaks climb from sea to sky.

I’ve been very fortunate to have explored this area, during a couple weeks of sea kayaking in Johnson Strait to a cycling adventure that took me to the remote coastal community of Bella Coola. Every time I visit this piece of the British Columbia coast, I’m amazed that such a stunning natural landscape receives relatively so little travelers. Of course this isn’t a bad thing while you’re there because you get to share thousands of acres of pristine wilderness with mostly just your friends. But if more of the general public isn’t made aware of some of the environmental issues that impact this area, than it’s going to be a difficult battle for organizations such as Living Oceans Society.

Take the time to look at the Living Oceans Society website or at least watch the video below. Oil spills are disastrous for these coastal communities as well as the millions of living organisms that reside in (and out of) these waters. Please consider the impact your lifestyle choices have on the environment; it’s quite possible the oil that now paints the sea black would have eventually ended up in your automobile.

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