September 24, 2014 Orcas Island, San Juan Islands, Washington

We got up at 5 am to be in line an hour early for the 730 am ferry to Orcas Island. They say it is hard to get on the ferry if you are not early. We were the first ones there for it. It cost $63 dollars for a round trip to Orcas Island. There are around 700 islands here. 300 are only visible during low tide, many are just rocks, 172 are named. Orcas is the biggest, at 60 square miles. The ferry goes to only 4 of the islands. There are homes on many of the others, but they have to have their own boats to get off the island.

The sun coming out in the am. It rained and was foggy when we left.  The other ferry going the other way past us. The ferry holds 200 cars and 2000 people. You can walk on, take a kayak or bike on besides your car or RV etc.  It was still raining when we arrived 50 minutes later.

After a lovely breakfast in the town of East Sound at the Village Skillet we went to Moran State Park. John thinks he is not related to these Moran’s. Too bad, they are rich! Robert Moran owned a ship building company which built among other things the  battleship USS Nebraska and was mayor of Seattle for many years. He retired early due to health reasons and moved to Orcas Island. He donated half of the land for the park in 1913. The CCC built roads, trails, structures and campgrounds in the 1930’s. This is Cascade lake with the fog just above the lake. At least it quit raining.

We went to the top of Mt Constitution which is the highest peak in the San Juan Islands. 2045 feet tall. Supposed to have the greatest  view of the mountains in Canada, North Cascades, Olympic mountains, Mt Baker  and all the islands. The CCC built a 500 foot stone viewing tower on top.  Here is a photo of John with the view we got! Oh well, we went down to hike some. The trees were fog shrouded.

 

Summit lake with water dripping from the pines. The CCC built this gazebo over Cold Spring and there is a nice trail there. There are 38 miles of trails in the park.

While we were hiking and sight seeing the sun started to come out so we went back up to the tower and got some nice views of the islands, but not the mountains. View north.

Sue and John on top of the tower. View north east.

View south. Lots of islands. We took another hike to Cascade falls. This is the upper falls, the lower falls drops 100 feet, but had lots of dead fall in front of it. I hiked back to the lake and John picked me up. We also hiked at Obstruction pass state park at one of the tips of the island.

A moth, mushrooms and yes, another slug. Rosario resort was originally just Rosario- the Moran mansion, built in 1905. It is now on the historical register and very beautiful inside. The Moran’s had 7 children. The upstairs is mostly a museum, and a fancy spa. There is a nice pool in the back and many cottages.

Back to East Sound to the Island Hoppin’ Brewery. Here is John charming the bar tender while tasting the Lighthouse IPA- which he said  was very good. We had to hustle to get back an hour before the 510pm ferry to head home. There were many more people in line this time. The Orcas ferry stop on the way out.

Interesting light on the water. A small island, next to a couple bigger ones.

The clouds were still stormy and dramatic among the islands, but the water was pretty calm.

The sun came out and nicely lit Anacortes as we arrived. We went check out the breweries in Anacortes for a third time  only to find that the woman in the visitors center was wrong, there is only one brewery and she thought it was the place next door to the Anacortes brewery. We found the correct place and had dinner. They brought me a glass of wine that was almost as big as the beer. John had local yearling oysters and I had pulled pork. We passed on the beer ice cream.