Seeing the Sea in the Northern San Juans by the Light of the New Moon

Lights make our modern world shine from the heavens, and we have mastered the art of illumination in thousands of ways to allow us to live life when the sun is farthest from our view. Yet, for all of the scientific mastery that we have imposed upon the natural world, there is yet one form of light that we can neither emulate nor ignore. Finding bioluminescence is a rare and wonderful event worth the loss of a few hours of sleep and a the gain of a few thousand miles of travel.

My favorite locale for this occurrence is in the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound in the northwest of Washington state. Out of Anacortes, a port town on the northern edge of Fidalgo Island, you can charter a boat to take you to some of the most fantastical evergreen islands in existence. As an alternative, you can hop a ferry to take you to the common ports on the larger islands or take a private flight on a touring plane.

No matter how you get out there, I highly recommend chartering a craft to get yourself a bit further north of the larger islands, to the Arrowhead of the San Juans, Stuart Island. There are hiking trails, historic buildings, a national monument and a singularly spectacular view of the turning point for freighters coming into the Puget Sound from the Pacific Ocean. All of these things can be seen by the light of day, and are only truly appreciable while the sun gives permission.

What I have brought you here to see is only visible on the interior of the horseshoe-shaped island, known as Reid Harbor, and even then can only be seen when the sun has gone to warm the eastern hemisphere, leaving the San Juans blanketed by stars and moonlight. Given that Stuart Island has very few man-made lights on any of her shores, this sight is even better when there is no moonlight at all.

They are called noctiluca scintillans, a form of free-floating algae that live in the mineral rich waters around the San Juans. When the sun sets, particularly after a breezy summer day when the harbor has been warmed and sufficiently stirred, the water becomes a dancing canvas of silvery blues and deep greens, evoking the life of the evergreens that tower above them, though in an existential form that defies the physical definition of shape and texture. In this atmosphere, you can almost forget to remember that you are a part of the world of spotlights and streetlamps, where such transcendental lighting can only exist in the digital realm.

Sleep is overrated in a place like this.