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Sea Kayak - McNeil Island Circumnavigation

A fun trip around McNeil Island from Sunnyside Beach Park in Steilacoom.

Will Greenough Will Greenough
December 04, 2025
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Parking at Sunnyside Beach Park is paid at a credit card machine at the north end of the lot. Note that it does not accept payment for parking before 9am and indicates parking is free until then. As we wanted to launch at or before 9am, this presented a difficulty. The help button on the machine provided a phone number which I called and was able to provide our license plate numbers agreeing to pay when we came back in the afternoon. For those wanting to launch earlier than 9am, you may want to call ahead to make arrangements in order to avoid potential ticketing. The parking fee is $10.

    For this launch it is advisable to bring wheels to get to the beach. The access to the beach is best at the south end of the park by the kayak rental location.

    We had mostly calm conditions with overcast for much of the day. There was a 5kt breeze from the north during our crossing back to Steilacoom from McNeil Island with maybe waves of 1/2'.

    Screenshot 2025-12-04 081729.jpg

We launched close to on time at 9:08am and headed north along the coast past Chambers Creek accompanied by a couple of sea lions. Just past the pedestrian overpass of the railroad tracks at Chambers Creek Park, we turned toward Fox Island for the crossing to Gibson Point. This detour adds about one nautical mile to the trip, but allows for a break before the extended time in the boats along the north side of McNeil (you must stay 100 yards clear of shore all the way around McNeil Island). There were huge numbers of terns flying and floating on the water between Fox Island and McNeil Island.

After a short break at Gibson Point we made the crossing to McNeil, aiming at the point just to the south of Gertrude Island and Still Harbor. Once across, we paddled west along the shore, observing the 100 yard clearance requirement. Once around Samego Point at the NW tip of McNeil, we headed toward the west side of Pitt Island with a little bit of current boost, and then south down Pitt Passage to a beach on Key Peninsula about 3/4 nm south of Pitt Island. This leg required about 2 hours of paddling to cover the 6nm without being able to get out of the boats.

After lunch we continued around the island, stopping for a break at the south end of Eagle Island before going back along the shore of McNeil Island. We headed out from the pier at the penitentiary facility for the final crossing back to Sunnyside Beach. We experienced a light wind from the north on this last crossing and some small wind waves on the beam. We made it back to the park at 3:35pm.

Conditions for the trip were SK-II. The only reason it is rated at SK-IV is that the crossings from Steilacoom to the island exceed 2nm.

Total distance: 15.9nm
Average moving pace: 2.9kt