Olympic

Olympic National Park is located in Washington, in the Olympic Peninsula. The nearest city is Port Angeles. The park was established June 29, 1938.

The coastal portion of the park is a rugged, sandy beach along with a strip of adjacent forest. It is 117 km long but just a few miles wide, with native communities at the mouths of two rivers. The Hoh River has the Hoh people and at the town of La Push at the mouth of the Quileute River lives the Quileute.

There are several roads in the park, but none penetrate far into the interior. The park features a network of hiking trails, although the size and remoteness means that it will usually take more than a weekend to get to the high country in the interior. The sights of the rain forest, with plants run riot and dozens of hues of green, are well worth the possibility of rain sometime during the trip, although months of July, August and September frequently have long dry spells.

The park is located on a peninsula, with a high mountain in the south; it developed many endemic plant  and animal species (like the Olympic Marmot and Piper's bellflower). The park has many different types of animals, like the Roosevelt Elk.

Written by Jesper Ødegård.