Northwestern Washington & the San Juan Islands - Washington, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest - page 224

Orcas Island
POP 5387
Orcas is a special island. More rugged than Lopez yet less crowded than San Juan Island,
it has struck a delicate balance between friendliness and frostiness, development and pre-
servation, tourist dollars and priceless privacy - for the time being at least.
Lying in the dry rain shadow of the storm-lashed Olympic Mountains, the island was
once an important trading post for the North Straits Salish Native Americans, who main-
tained a permanent settlement in present-day West Sound. The first European homestead-
ers arrived in the 1860s and within a couple of years they had set about clearing the old-
growth rainforest for crops and fruit orchards. Another early industrial project was lime
production, and by the early 20th century 35 lime kilns dotted the island, burning huge
amounts of local wood.
The growth of tourism is a distinctly modern development and an inevitable conse-
quence of Orcas' refreshing get-away-from-it-all location. Former Seattle mayor Robert
Moran opened the doors to the deluge in the early 1900s when he constructed a Xanadu-
like mansion, the Rosario (now a hotel), overlooking the shimmering waters of East
Sound.
Sights & Activities
For kayaking and biking options see the box on Click here .
Moran State Park PARK
MAP
( 6:30am-dusk Apr-Sep, from 8am Oct-Mar) In 1911, Robert Moran donated 7 sq miles of
his property to create this park on the island's eastern saddlebag. The park, which has
enough attractions to consume the best part of a day, is dominated by 2409ft Mt Consti-
tution , the archipelago's highest point and a mountain with the grandeur of a peak twice
its size. To say that the view from the summit is jaw-dropping would be an understate-
ment. On a clear day you can see Mt Rainier, Mt Baker, Vancouver's north shore and a
patchwork of tree-carpeted islands floating like emerald jewels on a blue crystalline
ocean. To see above the lofty firs a 53ft observation tower was erected in 1936 by the
Civilian Conservation Corp.
For drivers, the mountain has a paved road to the summit, though the view is infinitely
better if you earn it via a 4.3-mile hike up from Cascade Lake's North End Campground