[Advanced] Washington’s Orcas Island (2)

Catching the Highlights

The island's most famous geographic feature is Mount Constitution. The San Juans' highest point, at 2,400 feet, is the crowning glory of 5,000-acre Moran State Park. Visitors can drive (or ambitiously bike or hike) up to a stone lookout tower offering views of snow-clad Mount Baker and soaring eagles, along with eagle-eye views of boats of all sizes threading among islands spread below like blue-green lumps of clay waiting for a sculptor.

These days, another landmark beckons hikers, bikers and equestrians, thanks to local conservationists' 2006 purchase of Turtleback Mountain, which occupies a chunk of the island’s western half.

From a distance it looks like a turtle, with a dark green "shell" and the hump of a "head" at one end. The late Weyerhaeuser tycoon and one-time Boy Scouts of America president Norton Clapp owned it for many years as a retreat with only a tiny cabin at the top.

"It is truly the most iconic property on the islands, because it’s the most visible from all the islands -  from San Juan, Lopez and Shaw, it’s this beacon," said Lincoln Bormann, director of the San Juan County Land Bank, as he led me up one of the trails developed by his agency, which manages Turtleback’s 1,576 acres as a nature preserve.

Trails meander up through fir and hemlock woods and break out into steep meadows of dry grass dotted with glacially-scraped rocks and gnarled Garry oaks.

"There’s Tiptop Mountain and Spieden Island and Yellow Island," Bormann recited fondly as he looked out at views to the northwest. New in the past year: the Lost Oak Trail, built by volunteers and the Washington Conservation Corps, creating almost seven miles of trails on the mountain


Notes and Vocabulary

crowning adj.
greatest or most complete

soar v.
to fly or sail often at a great height by floating on air currents

lump n.
a small piece or mass of something

beckon v.
/ˈbɛkən/
1 to signal (someone) with your arm or hand in order to tell that person to come closer
2 a [no obj] : to appear attractive or inviting /b [+ obj] : to attract (someone or something)

equestrian adj.

of or relating to the riding of horses

conservationist n.
someone who works to protect animals, plants, and natural resources or to prevent the loss or waste of natural resources : a person who is involved in conservation

hump n.
a rounded lump on the surface of something: such as a : a raised, rounded part of a road

meander v.
to have a lot of curves instead of going in a straight or direct line : to follow a winding course
glacially adj.

gnarled adj.
of wood : having many twists and hard bumps or knots

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