Olympic National Park offers a great variety of natural beauty including snowcapped mountain peaks, vast tracts of old-growth forest, rugged unspoiled shores and a temperate rain forest. It is an ideal destination for hiking, camping, backpacking, sea kayaking and sightseeing.
The Olympic peninsula is located in the state of Washington, west of Seattle, at the northwestern tip of the lower 48 states. It is a square-shaped peninsula, approximately 100 miles on each side, bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, Puget Sound on the east and the Straight of Juan de Fuca on the north.
Olympic National Park covers a 50-mile circular area at the center of the peninsula plus most of the Pacific shoreline. Much of the land surrounding the Park is National Forest.
The Olympic Mountains rise to just under 8000 feet but are heavily snowcapped and glaciated in all seasons. The constant warm, moist breezes from the Pacific Ocean bring astounding amounts of rain to the western slopes of the mountains and huge amounts of snow to the peaks. The western lowlands and valleys receive as much as 150 inches (380 cm) of rain every year, and the peaks can get over 125 feet (38 meters) of snow.
The Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park are easy to reach with a few hours driving from Seattle, Washington. The quickest route is via ferryboat from Seattle to Bremerton, or from the northern Seattle suburb of Edmonds to Kingston. The fare is inexpensive - about $7 for a car or $3 per person - and the voyage is very scenic. It takes about an hour. You can also drive around the southern tip of Puget Sound at Tacoma and then drive north on the peninsula. But that will add many miles of driving and several extra hours to your journey.
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| Mt. Olympus |
The population on the Olympic peninsula is very sparse with most of the residents living in villages on the eastern and northern coasts. Port Townsend and Port Angeles on the northern shore are the main villages. There are also several other small but quaint fishing villages along this northern coast. The only significant town on the western side of the peninsula is the village of Forks. Port Townsend and Port Angeles offer a wide variety of accommodations. Forks has in the neighborhood of six motels and an equal number of restaurants.
Highway 101 almost completely circles the peninsula and the park. There are only a few access roads into the interior of the park. One popular access road goes south from Port Angeles for twenty miles and climbs 5000 feet to Hurricane Ridge. From there, the view of Mount Olympus and the interior of the park is fantastic. There are picnic facilities and restrooms at the visitor center and several good hiking trails. A small, unpaved road goes 9 miles south from Hurricane Ridge to Obstruction Point. A four-wheel drive vehicle is recommended, but any car with reasonably high road clearance can make it. Few tourists ever try this road, so you will be away from crowds. The view is spectacular and the chances of seeing wild animals are great.
About 25 miles west of Port Angeles, another access road follows the Sol Duc River for 20 miles into the interior of the park to the Sol Duc Hot Springs. A resort there offers accommodations and camping near these natural mineral-laden hot waters.
The village of Forks lies 50 miles west of Port Angeles. It is a good place to stop for lunch or to stay overnight while exploring the Pacific beaches and the western slopes of the Olympic Mountains.
From Forks, and further south along route 101, there are several access roads westward to the Pacific shore. Here you find more than 50 miles of undeveloped natural shoreline. Most of it can be reached only by hiking or backpacking through the surrounding wilderness. The beaches are rugged with rocky cliffs, wave-carved promontories, sandy beaches and numerous isolated crags and rocky "haystacks" parked just off the shore. In many places the beaches are stacked with giant logs and tree stumps that have washed down from the mountain slopes and have been cast up and onto the shore by the pounding Pacific surf.
