No woman is an island — unless she's on San Juan, offseason

No giant ferry lineups. A deluxe room for about half the summer price. No crowds in shops and restaurants. Blissfully empty parks and beaches.

Those were bonuses of my November visit to San Juan Island. In the winter offseason, the island, which is deluged with tourists in summer, reverts to its quiet, bucolic ways, like many tourist destinations around Washington state.

Yet at times my San Juan visit was a little too quiet ...

When I arrived in the early evening at Lakedale Resort, an upscale lodge and cabins tucked into the forest along a little lake, nobody was there. The front desk had closed at about 5 p.m., as it does daily in the offseason. The lodge's front door was locked. An envelope containing my keys and directions to my room was taped to the door.

I let myself in and moseyed around the spacious log-beamed lobby, where comfortable armchairs and sofas cluster by a stone fireplace. There were no other guests, no staff, just my lonely reflection in the big windows that, when it isn't pitch dark on a winter night, look out onto the teardrop lake.

A bit unnerved by the emptiness, I found my room — a comfortable earth-toned, woodsy room with wicker chairs, a down-quilted bed, gas fireplace and giant bathroom with a jetted tub. I settled in and didn't hear another soul for the rest of the night.

No crowds anywhere

During my two-weekday visit, it seemed like I had all of San Juan Island, not just the hotel, to myself.

In Friday Harbor, the island town that's home to about 2,200 people, I was the only person at the Whale Museum, wandering among its displays on orcas and other local sea life. At the Pelindaba Lavender store, packed with cosmetics and soaps produced at a San Juan lavender farm, I was the only customer sampling the lotions and chatting with the friendly saleswoman. Around the corner at Griffin Bay Books, which has a cafe, authors' readings and an excellent book selection, I was the only person browsing the shelves.

I left Friday Harbor and headed (on empty roads) to English Camp, part of San Juan Island National Historical Park. Alone, again — mine was the only car in the parking lot on the sparkling, sunny day.

I walked the tranquil shoreline and trails of English Camp, a 19th-century military camp established when both Britain and the United States claimed San Juan Island.

The two countries almost came to war over the island. What's dubbed the Pig War, a military standoff between the two countries, was provoked in 1859 when an American settler on San Juan Island killed a British farm pig because it was rooting in his garden. Tensions escalated, and both countries beefed up their military camps — English Camp and American Camp, the U.S. base to the south that's also preserved in the national park. Eventually, the standoff was peacefully settled with the United States getting possession of San Juan Island in 1872.

Only a few white-plank buildings remain at English Camp, including a waterfront blockhouse, of the dozens that once hugged the shore.

American Camp, at the south end of the island, was a bit "busier" on my visit. A half-dozen visitors roamed the remains of the parade ground and peered through the windows of the one-room cabin of the camp's laundress, one of the few buildings left.

Hundreds of U.S. soldiers were stationed here in the mid-1800s. Now it has lots of room for visitors: American Camp covers about 1,200 acres of windswept prairie, woodland and beach. Trails crisscross the grasslands, and the driftwood-strewn South Beach is one of the island's best for strolls and views across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the snow-capped Olympic Mountains.

My next lovely, and lonely, stop was Lime Kiln Point State Park. On summer weekends, thousands of visitors flock to the 36-acre seashore park, choking roads on the west side of the island. They come to watch orcas feed and cavort just offshore. And they take tours of the 1919 lighthouse that perches on the dark-rock bluff. But I shared the park with just two other people.

Island time

Of course, San Juan Island isn't the only place to find solitude this time of year. San Juan's neighboring islands, Orcas and Lopez, are equally tranquil and budget-friendly in winter. Or for an offseason getaway, head to Whidbey Island or to Washington beaches such as the Long Beach Peninsula, where prices tumble in winter.

If you need lots of elbow room, such areas have many cabins and vacation homes for nightly rental, ideal places to curl up and escape the world on a winter's night (See the accompanying story on how to find such getaway rentals.)

Kristin Jackson: 206-464-2271 or kjackson@seattletimes.com