The highest point in the San Juan Islands has a 1930s stone tower on top, and you can drive right to it
Feature Image Credit: Dicklyon – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wiki Commons
Most 2,400-foot mountains ask something of you. Mount Constitution just asks for a full tank of gas.
It’s the highest point in the San Juan Islands, and unlike almost every other big view in this state, you can drive straight to the top and be standing inside a stone tower from the 1930s within twenty minutes of the entrance gate.
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A tower built by men who’d never built one before
In August 1935, 28 members of the Civilian Conservation Corps hauled more than 700 tons of local sandstone up Mount Constitution and started stacking it, 53 feet high, block by block. Seattle architect Ellsworth Storey modeled the design after 12th-century watchtowers he’d seen in the Caucasus — not exactly the standard look for a Pacific Northwest fire lookout.
The tower pulled double duty as a WWII observation post, then spent the 1960s and ’70s as the broadcast home of a Bellingham TV station. It went back to strictly scenic work in 1967, once the tourist traffic got too heavy for the fire watchers to do their actual jobs.
Most fire lookouts in Washington make you earn the view with a full day of switchbacks. This one lets you cheat — and honestly, no shame in it.
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Getting to the top
Mount Constitution Road is open 6:30 a.m. to dusk in summer and 8 a.m. to dusk in winter, and the drive itself takes 15 to 25 minutes depending on how many pullouts pull you over. Big trailers and motorhomes aren’t allowed on it, so leave those back at the campground.
The summit visitor center runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through summer and closes for the season after October. Climb the tower’s spiral stairs and the payoff is a real 360-degree view — Bellingham, the North Cascades, Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, Anacortes, and Port Townsend, all from one spot on a clear day.
If you’d rather earn it anyway
The Mount Constitution via Mountain Lake and Little Summit Loop trail covers 7.5 miles and about 1,748 feet of climbing to reach the same summit on foot — rated hard, and worth budgeting four-plus hours for. It starts at Mountain Lake and winds through moss-draped old growth before breaking into the open near the top.
What’s worth your time down below
Cascade Lake has a designated swim beach, a dock, and a boat launch, plus a dozen campsites right on the shoreline if you want to turn this into a weekend instead of a day trip. Getting to Orcas Island in the first place means a Washington State Ferries run from Anacortes — about an hour each way, with sailings roughly every four hours.
Day visitors need a Discover Pass to park anywhere in Moran State Park, including up at the summit — $10 for the day or $45 for the year. Book a campsite instead and the park hands you a pass at check-in, no extra purchase needed.
Rainier gets the postcards and Baker gets the ski crowds, but Mount Constitution might be the easiest 2,400-foot payoff in the whole state. Have you been up in the tower yet, or is this the nudge you needed?
Trip tips: grab a rental car for the drive up from the ferry, book a hotel on Orcas Island if you’re staying over, or skip both and bring a camper van instead.
Rules and fees change — always confirm current requirements before you go.
