Lodging on Orcas Island San Juan Islands, Washington. Originally constructed in the late 1800s, the 100 year old folk national style farmhouse was initially restored some years ago. The ongoing work preserves the integrity of the original farmhouse while incorporating conveniences necessary for today's travelers. The living room boasts a Rumford fireplace, comfortable seating, and a corner game table. The large dining room has a convenient wet bar tucked into one corner. There are seven guest bedrooms each with its own private bath and furnished with a blend of fine antiques and contemporary pieces. South of the farmhouse in our orchard is the. offering four delightful king-bedded rooms in a style similar to the Inn. Each room has its own individual charm which blends perfectly with the whole. All have custom woolen comforters down pillows, radios, and hair dryers. Valley View in the north wing has a queen bed, sofa bed, antique furnishings, private deck overlooking the farm below, and private bath with clawfooted tub, overhead shower and antique pedestal sink. $195 per night plus tax*. The Nook, adjacent to Valley View in the north wing, is small and cozy with a double bed. The bath offers pedestal sink and antique tub with overhead shower. $115 per night plus tax*. Meadow View in the south wing is a queen bedded room with antique furnishings, sofa bed, private deck overlooking the meadow, and private bath with clawfooted tub, overhead shower and antique pedestal sink. Garden View overlooks our lovely flower garden. It offers a queen bed, private bath with clawfooted tub, overhead shower and pedestal sink. $165 per night plus tax*. Elm View is on the second floor commanding a special view of the meadows, ponds and the farm. It offers a queen bed, a sitting area with sofa bed, private bath with clawfooted tub, overhead shower and antique pedestal sink. $175 per night plus tax*. Maple View is also on the second floor. Its outlook is focused upon the maples in the meadow. A sunny room with queen bed, private bath with clawfooted tub, overhead shower and pedestal sink. Orchard View on the second floor is a queen bedded room looking toward Turtleback Mountain. The bath has a modern stall shower and pedestal sink. Quite Season rates - call for information. * Rates May 24 to October 1, 2008*. If two nights are available, we require a two night minimum stay in the Farmhouse from June 1 through October 1, and on many weekends and holidays throughout the year. Please call for availability.

Bed and Breakfast Orcas Island San Juan Islands, Washington. The Orchard House at Turtleback Farm. A separate building set in the apple orchard looking east to Mt. Wollard, the Orchard House offers four spacious king-bedded rooms complete with gas fireplaces, sitting/dining areas, full bath with clawfooted soaking tubs, separate large showers and private decks. Each room is furnished with woolen comforters and down pillows, elegant robes, coffee and tea service, refrigerators, CD players, hair dryers, magnifying make-up mirrors, and ironing boards. This cedar building has been designed to resemble a wooden barn and reflects the importance the Fletchers attach to the remarkably fine workmanship that is the outstanding feature of Turtleback Farm Inn. * Season rate $260 per room per night plus tax*. Please call for availability. If two nights are available, we require a two night minimum stay in the Orchard House from June 1 through October 1, and on many weekends and holidays throughout the year.

Pacific Epicure Review. Pacific Epicure's Garden Page. Notes From A Maritime West Coast Garden. TRAVELS IN MY GARDEN OF EARTHLY AND SPIRITUAL DELIGHTS: STUDIES IN SACRED AND PROFANE HORTICULTURE. Turtleback Farm Inn A perfect retreat: Waking to apple blossoms; Softly bleating lambs. The photo above is a view of Crow Valley on Orcas Island as seen from Turtleback Farm Inn. The blasted maple is more than 350 years old, and was a stately tree long before the first European and Yankee explorers set foot on these hospitable shores. I spent a couple of days this week on Orcas Island, the largest and most mountainous of the San Juans. Orcas is a beautiful Island. Its fir-clad mountains, deeply cut by fjord-like inlets, rise straight from the sea. Mt. Constitution, at 2407 feet the islands' tallest peak, has a rustic stone lookout tower, with great views over the Salish Sea, the islands, and the North Cascade peaks. The forest floor is covered with soft mosses.... Orcas Island's rocky shores are lined with summer homes, but inland valleys are still devoted to farming. Sheep pastures break up the woods, and ancient apple orchards, surviving from a time when the San Juans were the Northwest's premier fruit growing region, dot the slopes. Century-old farmhouses, often surrounded by gardens and small orchards, cuddle into the hillsides. In spring and summer, flowers seem everywhere, and even the hedgerows are in bloom. It was in one of these old farmhouses, lovingly restored, that I found the perfect country inn. I have stayed at many county inns over the years, and most were beautiful, but they lacked that ineffable of true perfection. The Turtleback Farm Inn has it, but like all true perfection, it is difficult to define. A sense of peace and calmness enfolds me as soon as I walk through the door, and I sigh deeply, knowing I have finally found the right place. While the old farmhouse looks timeless and unchanged from the outside, the inn's seven utterly comfortable rooms have been brought up to the most modern luxury standards. Four rooms in a new cedar-sided building south of the farmhouse are even more luxurious. But it isn't frills and gadgets that make the Turtleback Farm Inn such a comfortable placeit's the attention to detail: everything has its place and purpose; nothing is lacking, but no superfluous frills clog up the rooms. The rooms overlook the woods, meadows, and ponds of Crow Valley from the lower slopes of Turtleback Mountain. Cotswold sheep graze in the meadows and black chickens roam along the wooded edge. Ducks, geese, and herons visit the ponds; ravens, bald, and golden eagles ride the thermals. And, of course, there are the crows that gave the valley its name. I fall asleep to the soughing of a night breeze and the distant murmur of frogs, and I wake to the song of robins and the gentle bleating of lambs. I linger over breakfast and smile, because I know I have found perfection. But how exactly do I define this quality? I shelf the question and take a walk through the spring woods, where bracken ferns are sending up fiddleheads, and I stop to listen to the birds and admire the daffodils blooming beneath the alders. Overhead, two ravens perform an acrobatic mating dance, accompanied by a symphony of croaks, gurgles, and caws. Returning to my garden, I am greeted by the delightful scent of orange blossoms. My [potted] orange tree is blooming for the second time this spring. It bloomed in the garage in February and March, and it is now blooming outside. Last year it kept its blossoms until June. The camas is also blooming, and my strawberries are getting their first flowers. Both are about a month early. My apple trees are now in full bloom, but I'm worried, because I have seen few bees and bumble bees this spring. Hopefully they will come to fertilize the flowers, or I will have no fruit this autumn. The garden is filled with bird song during the day; robins sing all night long. The house sparrows are nesting for the second time; two song sparrow families are hanging out near the brush piles, and chickadees have moved into two of the nest boxes. We have had no hawks for several weeks: the crows drive them away. Both crows and jays beg shamelessly for peanuts to feed themselves and their young at this stressful season. While I was gone, the crows discovered that the patio table is the perfect place for hammering open peanuts. The rufous hummingbirds exhausted the nectar in two out of four feeders, but I came back in time to replenish the supply. They thank me by buzzing me and taking angry jabs at my head. They think it's their garden. John Doerper Bellingham, WA 27 April 2001. These happy chickens live at Turtleback Farm Inn. They spend their days scratching up the fields, but at night they are locked up in the hen house to keep marauding raccoons at bay. Note: All original text and photographs on this web page are © Copyright 2001 C.E. by John Doerper. Reprinted here by permission of the author.

Turtleback Farm Inn Reviews. Many consider Orcas the most beautiful (of the San Juan Islands), and among its many inns and bed-and-breakfasts the Turtleback Farm Inn is unique in many respects. It's a working farm set on 80 private acres of sheep- and cow-grazing meadows, woods, and duck ponds, with a green clapboard farmhouse that dates back to the late 1800s. Every night is romantic in any of its eleven elegant, uncluttered guest rooms, and every morning is special thanks to a prizewinning breakfast so memorable that it's featured regularly in food magazines, as well as in the inn's own Turtleback Cookbook. --Patricia Schultz, 1000 Places to See Before You Die. It was in one of these old farmhouses, lovingly restored, that I found the perfect country inn A sense of peace and calmness enfolds me as soon as I walk through the door, and I sigh deeply, knowing I have finally found the right place.. (click for full review). Pacific Epicure's Garden Pages. My vote for the slickest inn on Orcas goes to Susan and Bill Fletcher's two-story green-and-white Turtleback Farm...a perfectly marvelous B B. --Jerry Hulse, With its forest-green clapboard and ivory trim, its well tended flower gardens, and its unpretentious sitting room with Early American furniture and Persian carpets, Turtleback exudes the old fashioned good taste of a 1940's June Allyson movie. --Charles Michener - The Fletchers now devote themselves year-round to sharing with guests the tranquility, lush countryside, and homey, antiques-filled accommodations of their Orcas Island hideaway. --Jessie Walker - Country Living Magazine....my children and I found a profound peace on a farm in the Pacific Northwest. --Susan LaTempa - This restored 100-year old farmhouse has got to be one of the country's most romantic inns. Consider: bedrooms with homegrown wool comforters and antiques, gourmet breakfasts, and killer views overlooking 80 acres of conifer forests, green pastures, and ponds. --Carole Jacobs - Turtleback Farm Inn represents the ideal choice for those seeking an intimate lodging, the pastoral bed breakfast veiled amid 80 acres of sheep-studded meadows, duck-graced ponds and elm-shaded cottage gardens. --Andrew Harper - The Fletchers have mastered the formula for successful innkeeping: personal attention, quality service, and love for the region. Walking into the spotless, cheery inn in Crow Valley, guests know they can expect a comfortable stay... --Alicia Ahn -...the inn has earned a solid reputation as a romantic place to spend a night off Orcas Island's well-beaten path. --From Bill Gleason's. Weekends for Two in the Pacific Northwest: 50 Romantic Getaways. 1st and 2nd editions (quoted in. Pacific Northwest Magazine. In one such valley stands the green-clapboard Turtleback Farm Inn, a tranquil...oasis renowned for its romantic atmosphere and superb breakfasts. --Karolyn Ide - Couples love emerging from the marshmallow-soft comforters to have ricotta pancakes on the cedar deck overlooking Crow Valley. --Heidi Yorkshire - Love American Style -

 Breakfast may be served in the room
 Conference and meeting room
 Credit cards accepted
 Facsimile services
 Hairdryer
 Heating
 Access to internet
 Ironing facilities
 Kitchen
 Laundry services/washing machine
 Smoke-free guest rooms
 Parking lot
 Private park, garden, courtyard
 Quiet surroundings
 Clock/radio
 Fridge
 Private/Ensuite bathroom
 Tea and coffee making facilities
 Phone at reception
 Phones in rooms
 TV sets in rooms
 Patio, summer terrace
 Common room with a TV set