Friday 8/18/00
Day 15 Orcas Island
We
woke up to a partly overcast day. As typical on these islands, the sun and clouds
came and went, but we really couldn't complain. We drove into Eastsound and
ate breakfast at Vern's Dockside. They weren't busy at all and we had a nice
table by the window overlooking the bay and a small island. We decided to explore
the western part of the island today. We drove toward Sunset Beach, crossing
a bridge over a narrow inlet. We kept looking for signs on our way for the Frank
Richardson Wildlife Preserve. We finally figured out that it consisted of the
marshy area on the right side of the road, though we never saw any signs for
it. The preserve was suppose to be popular with bird-watchers. The beach was
not acessible as it was on private property. We finally turned back and stopped
at the Deer Harbor Resort. This area was first settled by French trappers hunting
for deer to be sent to the Hudson Bay outpost on San Juan Island in 1852. This
resort was not as posh as Rosario's which we would stop at later today or Roche
Harbor on San Juan Island, but obviously nicer than Doe Bay where we were staying.
The resort consisted of some nice shingled cabins, a marina, restaurants, post
office and a few stores. All of these facilities are suppose to be just for
the guests. We drove past the resort where we found several residences on large
wooded lots. We drove back to the Ferry Landing and attempted to take the Killebrew
Lake Road. I'm not sure if we passed this lake or not, I was lost. We eventually
did make it to the northern part of the west side of the island. The West Beach
Resort appeared to serve mostly RV's. We drove past the airport, a small strip
mall and the Orcas Theatre and Community Center.
We
continued on to the Rosario Resort which we had never been to before. This
resort was built in 1904 by Robert Moran, a former Seattle mayor, ship builder
and millionaire, who had been given only a year to live and decided to retire
on this island. His doctors were wrong, he lived almost another 40 years.
He orginally buildt a private mansion on this property of reinforced concrete,
7/8 inch plate glass windows, imported woods and a copper roof, with 54 rooms,
taking 6 years to build. He sold the property in 1938, but it was not turned
into a resort until 1960. The resort consists of everything one would expect:
a variety of lodging, marina, outdoor swimming and tennis facilities, restarurants,
laundry mat, stores. Again these are suppose to be just for the guests. We
liked Roche Harbor much better. This place seemed stuffy and the grounds weren't
kept up as well. Robert Moran also donated 3,600 acres of land to the state
not far from the resort, which became Moran State Park. 
The
main road going from Eastsound to Olgo takes you through part of this park.
Arches at both entrances let you know you are in the parks boundaries. This
main road goes along the shore of Cascade Lake, past several campgrounds.
The park has four campgrounds consisting of more than 150 sites, five lakes
and 26 miles of hiking trails. We turned off to head up Mt. Constitution.
Before reaching the summit we stopped to view the falls along Cascade Creek.
We found the signs a bit confusing for the short trails leading to four different
falls along the creek. We did view one of them. The falls were not terribly
impressive, however a very tall tree that had fallen in the creek bed was.
We continued up the mountain, which was quite steep and windy, but much easier
to reach by motorized vehicle than bicycle. We passed several bicylists, including
some young kids trying to keep up with their parents and just shook our heads.
There were lots of people at the summit (elevationn 2409 feet) where you'll
find a stone observation tower. Built in 1936 this tower is a replica of one
built in the 12th century to guard the Caucasian Mountain Passes in Russia.
We climbed to the top of this 52-foot high tower to get a 360 degree view
of the the Olympics, Cascades, forests and lots of islands. Plaques labelled
the various mountains and islands one could see. Even though it was overcast
and a bit crowded climbing up and down the tower, we had an excellent view,
overheard some interesting conversations and we were pleased with the pictures
we took.
We drove back down the mountain and continued on to Olga, stopping at the Olga Artworks. This is an art co-op which also contains a restaurant serving mainly vegetarian food and a bookstore upstarirs. We stopped here last night around 7 pm, but they had closed at 6 pm. We usually stop here to look at the artwork and eat lunch. The art is always a little too expensive, but it is a nice variety of different art forms (jewelry, clothing, watercolors, pottery, ...) made by local artisits. The food seemed expensive this time and the bookstore was closed. We decided to drive the short distance to Olga which a small community consisting of a park, post office and general store at the end of a road. We stopped at the General Store which sold mostly tourist stuff and had a deli and ice creamery in the back. The gal working at the deli was quite friendly and let us sample some of the chowder straight from the pot in her kitchen. We bought some sandwiches and soup, grabbed a bottle of wine in our truck and headed for the park which overlooked the bay. This was a nice, quiet spot for a picnic.
From
here we went back to Doe Bay and soaked in the hot tub for awhile. After a nap
we headed back to Eastsound for dinner and decided to eat at Bilbo's, a Mexican
Restaurant. They had outdoor seating, but since it was almost 9 pm they had
closed that section of the restaurant. We were surpirsed to see how busy they
were and that they would be serving until 9:30 on a Sunday night. We decided
to take a short walk around town and come back in about 15 minutes when a few
table would be empty. They were still pretty busy but at least we found a table.
Their food is kind of expensive, but we thought it was pretty authentic. After
dinner we stopped at Vern's for a drink and then drove back to Doe Bay around
11 pm.
We drove 100 miles today and 4050 total