The San Juan Islands are a part of the San Juan Archipelago in the northwest corner of the continental United States. The archipelago is split into two groups of islands based on national sovereignty. San Juan Islands are part of the U.S. state of Washington, while the Gulf Islands are part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. There are over 450 islands in the entire archipelago at high tide, but fewer than one-sixth are permanently inhabited. In the archipelago, fifteen islands are accessible by public ferry. Public ferries serve nine Gulf Islands and six San Juan Islands.

Today, the San Juan Islands are an important tourist destination, with sea kayaking and orca-watching two of the primary attractions. Part of the charm that attracts tourists and residents to the San Juan Islands is that each island seems to have a character of its own, both in terms of geography and of the lifestyle of the people who live there.

The majority of the San Juan Islands are quite hilly, the tallest mountain being Mount Constitution on Orcas Island, with some flat areas and valleys, often quite fertile, in between. The coastlines are a mixed bag of sandy and rocky beaches, shallow and deep harbors, placid and reef-studded bays. Gnarled, ochre-colored madrona trees grace much of the shorelines while evergreen fir and pine forests cover large inland areas.

The San Juan Islands get less rainfall than Seattle, about 65 miles to the south, due to the rain shadow of Olympic Mountains to the southwest. Summertime high temperatures are around 70 °F while average wintertime lows are in the high thirties and low forties. Snow is infrequent in winter except for the higher elevations, but the islands are subject to high winds at times—those from the northeast sometimes bring brief periods of freezing and Arctic-like windchills.

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