COME TO LIFE ON ORCAS ISLAND!

What's New

From the moment you set foot on Orcas Island, you know that you're in a distinctively friendly and extraordinarily beautiful place. The emerald horseshoe of Orcas Island hangs like a good-luck charm just north of Puget Sound: a showpiece of Washington's natural blessings tucked away in the Pacific Northwest's northwest corner. Orcas Island's 57 square miles and 70 miles of shoreline support approximately 4000 year-round residents: a rich blend of life-long islanders, retirees and young families newly arrived from the mainland.

Outlook Inn
Eastsound Waterfront

Once a pioneering outpost, (our beachfront hotel and church date from the 1880's), Orcas and the other San Juan Islands matured into prosperous farming communities during the early 1900's. Apple and pear trees remain scattered everywhere on Orcas Island, along with rambling wild rosebush hedges and spots of brilliantly-colored poppies in the summer and the year-round madronas whose red bark silhouettes beautifully against the waters and mountains of Orcas Island.

Madronas along West Sound

In earlier days, some islanders opened small family-run resorts, where people began visiting for a day, or a week, to relax and enjoy the lakes and waterfalls of Moran State Park, or to hike Mt. Constitution, which towers over the huge, 5252-acre forest preserve. (Some of these resorts are still going strong and are visited by grandchildren of those first tourists.)

Cascade Lake in
Moran State Park

The San Juan Islands, by virtue of the surrounding Olympic and Cascade mountain ranges, offer nearly 250 sunny days a year and a pleasant, moderate climate year-round. People find they want to return, not just for relaxing visits, but to own their personal piece of island magic.

Crow Valley

Blacktail deer browse through backyards, and it is not unusual to spot a sea otter from your seat on the Washington State Ferry. Flocks of Trumpeter Swans stop in each spring at Cascade Lake for a visit, and hummingbirds buzz around gardens come summer. A traveler winding along the main road sees neat farmhouses and occasional grazing flocks of sheep; or you may observe homes tucked privately in the trees in wooded settings.

Orcas Center for
Performing Arts

Savor the cedar, fir and pine scents in the ocean-freshened air and feel the freedom and fulfillment Orcas Island has to offer. Who lives on Orcas Island? People just like you, who are ready to live life to their fullest expression, and leave the pressure behind.

Homes are in all price ranges from the average single-family residence to hundred-acre estates. There's also a wealth of magnificent acreage to choose from when building your own dream home; or you could purchase your own private island.

Orcas Island, however, is neither as isolated nor as rustic as it might first appear. In addition to Washington State Ferries providing many daily trips to the mainland, Orcas is easily accessible by boats and planes, both private and commercial.

Orcas Island residents are wonderful people

Summer blossoms at Buck Bay

The economic picture of Orcas Island has grown beyond farms, fishing and logging. Construction is a booming industry, and service sector employment has grown alongside the island's tourism income. Orcas Island supports many telecommuting professionals as well as entrepreneurs and a variety of artists and craftspeople. Just north of Eastsound sits the lively Orcas Center for Performing Arts where world-class entertainers and Orcas Island's own resident first-rate artists present their works to sold-out audiences.

Orcas Island offers something for everyone in a relaxed, close-to-nature atmosphere where community spirit thrives and welcomes all.