Olympic National Park, Washington

The Olympic Peninsula is home to eight American Indian tribes that developed complex hunter-gatherer societies and continue to keep their traditions alive. The Olympics were set aside as a national monument in 1909 and further protected as Olympic National Park in 1938.



Part of what makes Olympic National Park so unique is that it contains three distinct ecological systems; glacier-capped mountains, Pacific coastline and temperate rain forests.

The high mountain areas topped by mighty Mount Olympus are best explored on foot, along the miles of high country trails.

Glaciers are one of the favorite destinations. There are about 266 glaciers crowning the Olympics peaks, most quite small. Surrounded on three sides by water, the Olympics retain the distinctive character that developed from their isolation. The temperate rain forest provides one of the most lush and vibrant environments in the park.

A world of landscapes unfolds here: glaciers chisel U-shaped valleys, and brilliantly colored wildflowers blanket subalpine meadows. Geologists still debate the origins of the Olympics. Some 50 million years ago lava gushed from underwater rips in the edge of the continent, hardening into miles-thick layers of basalt.

Ice-age glaciers helped carve the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound, separating the Olympics from nearby lands.

Olympic National Park protects the largest old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest.

Below is a cute black-tailed deer who happened to be gulping up some grasses near the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.

In the background of the photo below you can see the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Just the otherside of the Strait is Victoria, British Columbia.

If you ever get to the beautiful state of Washington be sure to go to Olympic National Park.

If you make it further up the coast, you will be able to go to the HOH rain forest also.

See ya down the road!