Turtleback Mountain Preserve

We headed up the south trailhead since it’s the easier of the two. It’s basically a logging road so it was a nice ascent. The views were incredible most of the way up. You could see everything! We came back down the way we went up.

Quiet, nearly deserted during the week, and so much green/​moss that it truly earns its name. Lots of different trailheads without becoming too overwhelming/​unwieldy. The best.

Beautiful area to hike on the West side of Orcas Island. Turtleback has several miles of trail from easy to moderate difficulty, including a couple of loop routes and numerous viewpoints.
The views here aren’t as spectacular as those from the top of Mount Constitution on the other side of the island (the summit here is only 930 ft compared to Constitution’s 2409 ft), but there are far fewer people here to share them with. There is no road to the top here (the road being the primary reason the summit of Mt. Constitution is so crowded), but hikers may have to share portions of the trail network with horses or mountain bikers. We only saw a handful of other hikers, though. Well, them and a lot of birds, squirrels, deer, and other forest critters :-)
I was really glad that we made the Turtleback Mountain Preserve one of our first stops on Orcas Island after arriving on an early ferry– a brisk hike in the cool morning air really set the day off right!

The San Juan County Land Bank manages the Turtleback Mountain Preserve and the Preserve was just opened a few years ago. There are two entrances to the Preserve, the North entrance and the South entrance. If you go to their website, you can download a map and see how to drive to both entrances. It’s easy to miss the turnoffs for the parking lots at both of the locations.
Starting from the South entrance (which are pedestrian trails only), it’s a beautiful hike up the mountain to get views of all of the islands and it’s beautiful. Trails were very well maintained and clearly marked. Passed by a lot of locals on the trail who seem to frequent the park. Apparently, on certain trails (starting from the North entrance) you can ride horses. On the map it’s clearly marked which are horse-​friendly trails and which are only for pedestrians.
This is a hike not to miss on Orcas!