MONROE — Get high in a tree.
Mountain Views Tree House Bed and Breakfast Retreat lets guests do that, literally and figuratively.
The treehouse getaway offers cannabis-friendly stays on nearly 4 acres northwest of Sultan. The rural Snohomish County property is nestled among towering cedars, sprawling grass and a fenced-in area for alpacas, a cat, dogs, a donkey, a horse, goats and sheep.
My partner and I stayed in the smallest option, the Hashtag Tree House, on a sunny weekday in June. It was the first treehouse that owner-operator Tracy Rice, 45, had built almost nine years ago. Three others have since joined it, each larger than the last. Rates vary from $225 to $375 per night.
Guests can smoke and vape weed in any of them, or outside near the campfire, or on a bungee net, or in the kitchen lounge.
“It started always, from day one, as cannabis friendly,” Rice said. ”My dream of staying home stoned in my pajamas with my pets came true.”
Rice greeted us, like she does all of her guests, around noon on the day of our stay with a text: “Hiiiiiiiiigh Ben!”
The treehouse BB sits on 4 acres of land northwest of Sultan. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
From the tree-lined road, the gravel driveway leads to a gate. Rice blocked the entry after some trespassers she suspects learned about it from a video on TikTok, but her treehouse retreat also has been featured on KING5, in Forbes, High Times Magazine and Seattle Met Magazine. Now she gives guests a code so they can get in.
A sign says “Mountain Views Tree House Bed and Breakfast.” But there won’t be any bacon, cereal, eggs or pancakes waiting inside the main house. Instead, Rice said, it needs to be “bed and bong.”
Through the gate, the driveway passes the livestock guard dog and his flock of two alpacas, two babydoll sheep, two fainting goats, a horse, a donkey and a pig.
As we pulled into the parking space designated for our treehouse, Rice greeted us with her house dog, Poncho. He’s one of 15 animals on the property, most of which have weed-related names, such as alpacas Bong and Dab, sheep MaryJane and Flower Pot and livestock guardian dog Bowlseye. The fainting goats, Homey and Roney, were named after the stay-home order and coronavirus, respectively.
Forest-softened light shines into a treehouse room. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
She showed us the property and to the Hashtag Tree House maybe 15 feet above the ground. The steps took us to a room with a lofted full-size bed. It was enough space for us to spend the night away from home, share a joint and giddily laugh the night away.
The main level had a chair, a bean bag and a little table with an ashtray, grinder, color changing LED lights, crystals and sage.
A Grateful Dead poster could have completed the vibe, which Rice said she meticulously curates in the spaces, the property and among the guests. She’s declined reservations from potential customers if she senses they’re not really interested in a place that lets people smoke weed almost everywhere.
But it doesn’t happen often because one constant is true for her guests.
“All of them are stoners,” Rice said.
“It started always, from day one, as cannabis friendly,” Tracy Rice says. ”My dream of staying home stoned in my pajamas with my pets came true.” (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
As more states decriminalize and legalize recreational cannabis use, the demographic of who consumes it gets broader, National Cannabis Industry Association communications director Bethany Moore said.
“It’s not just the stereotypes from decades ago,” Moore said.
Combining lodging and cannabis creates opportunities for people who can’t or don’t want to use it at home.
“It’s interesting to see the many ways that the legalization of cannabis is being applied to other industries,” Moore said.
Weed is big business in Washington. Last fiscal year, recreational cannabis had almost $1.5 billion in sales, generating $553 million in excise tax revenue, according to data from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board. The Washington Cannabusiness Association, a trade group, knows that its products and work have created spending in other sectors, too.
“While we don’t have data evaluating the cannabis sector with hospitality in Washington specifically, we expect that the next 10 years in the industry will reveal more and new opportunity, advancements in the science of the cannabis plant,” a spokesperson said. “And similarly to its excellence and leadership with wine, apples, aerospace and technology, Washington will be recognized for its contributions in the cannabis industry.”
A rolling tray and other marijuana paraphernalia sit at the ready in one of the treehouses. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Rice got into the bed and breakfast business in Snohomish County after opening and selling a weed store in Colorado. She knows cannabis. For the record, she prefers indica concentrate and flower based on her experience of that type’s purported mellowing effects.
Lots of options are available for additional charges, but you won’t be able to buy any bud from Rice. Use of the hot tub is $15, suspended bungee cord-style net is $20, a kitchen, living room and bathroom VIP lounge is $50, lying in a giant tree net — what Rice calls “net flick and chill” — and watching something on the projector screen is $35 — all per person.
Rice graciously added the tree net and the lounge for us and the other guests during our visit. Our one-night stay was around $300 with taxes.
At night, we climbed up into the tree net and heard other guests let out the same cannabis-induced laughter as us.
That kind of giggling always delights Rice.
“One time it brought tears to my eyes,” she said. “I created that.”
A local woodworker made the signs at the BB. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
While lying in the net, we gazed upon a clear night sky as smoke wafted through the cedar canopy toward the stars. Frogs croaked nearby.
Once we retired to the treehouse, an owl hooted us to sleep.
Birdsong greeted us with a sunrise gleaming through corrugated plastic sheets that made up most of the walls. We could have drawn the curtain for a little more sleep, but that would have hidden the allure of waking to the sight of cedar boughs and trunks and the grass field below.
It was easy to imagine bringing a few other friends to occupy the other treehouses and making a properly silly weekend of it all: breakfasts in the lounge, lunches in the net, dinners around the campfire.
A projector screen and oversize hammock lets guests relax in the trees and watch Netflix while enjoying cannabis. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Munchies can be satisfied via food delivery apps that can bring the goods from restaurants in Monroe or Sultan.
“DoorDash was here six times in the same day,” Rice said.
It’s one reason Rice recommends, but hasn’t required, at least two nights.
“Number one, you’re going to lose a day here, it just happens,” Rice said. “Number two, don’t be mad at yourself if you don’t do anything you had planned. You’re going to get here and you’re not going to leave.”
Next time, we’ll follow her advice.
Ben Watanabe: 425-339-3037; bwatanabe@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @benwatanabe.
Pops of color brighten a room at the treehouse BB. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
If you go
Mountain Views Tree House B&B Retreat, 14308 Reiner Road, Monroe. Entry requires gate code.
Contact: tracy@mountainviewsbb.com.
Cost: Nightly rates vary from $225 to $375 for treehouse, or $3,500 for the entire property including the main house.
Reservations: mountainviewsbb.com/book-a-room; It’s busier on spring and summer weekends.
Sound & Summit
This article is featured in the fall issue of Sound & Summit, a supplement of The Daily Herald. Explore Snohomish and Island counties with each quarterly magazine. Each issue is $3.99. Subscribe to receive all four editions for $14 per year. Call 425-339-3200 or go to soundsummitmagazine.com for more information.
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