Olympic National Park: Mount Olympus, Hoh Rain Forest and Pacific Coast

Olympic National Park protects almost a million acres of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, and within that space it holds three different worlds: glacier-capped mountains crowned by 7,965-foot Mount Olympus, some of the wettest temperate rain forest in the United States, and about 60 miles of wild Pacific coast. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of America’s most visited parks.

Olympic National Park at a glance

• Area: about 922,650 acres (3,734 km²); in 1988 Congress designated about 95 percent of it as wilderness, now the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness.
• Highest peak: Mount Olympus, 7,965 ft (2,428 m), with the most extensive glaciers in the range.
• Designations: UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1976 and World Heritage Site in 1981.
• Visitors: about 3.7 million in 2024.

From national monument to national park

The National Park Service’s historical overview traces the park to Mount Olympus National Monument, created in 1909 by Theodore Roosevelt mainly to protect the summer range and calving grounds of the native Roosevelt elk. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration redesignated it Olympic National Park on 29 June 1938. The peninsula’s Indigenous peoples have lived here far longer, and their communities remain part of its story.

Mountains, rain forest and coast

The mountains. The Olympic Mountains rise steeply from the centre of the peninsula. Their glaciers are shrinking fast: the park counted 266 in 1982 and 184 by 2009. In summer the subalpine meadows fill with wildflowers, and the isolation of the range has produced species found nowhere else, such as the Olympic marmot, Piper’s bellflower and Flett’s violet.

The rain forest. On the west side, the Hoh Rain Forest receives more than 12 feet (370 cm) of precipitation a year, possibly the most of anywhere in the contiguous United States. The result is a forest of tall, moss-draped trees.

The coast and rivers. The coastal strip runs for about 60 miles, with wild beaches and tide pools. Inland, the removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, completed in 2014, was the second-largest ecosystem restoration in National Park Service history after the Everglades.

How to visit: bases, roads and ferries

No road crosses the park’s mountain interior. Highway 101 runs around the peninsula, and each area of the park is reached by its own road from it. The National Park Service suggests two main bases:

• Port Angeles or Lake Crescent for Hurricane Ridge and Sol Duc Falls. A Hurricane Ridge shuttle runs from downtown Port Angeles from May to early September.
• Forks for the Hoh Rain Forest and tide pooling on the coast.

Washington State Ferries to Bainbridge Island or Kingston connect with State Route 104 across the Hood Canal Bridge, which closes at times for boat traffic. From Olympia, I-5 connects to Highway 101, and the Coho ferry links Port Angeles with Victoria, British Columbia. Hurricane Ridge’s visitor centre burned down in May 2023, with federal funding allocated for rebuilding.

Check Olympic’s current conditions page before you go, especially in autumn and winter, when mountain roads and trails can close.

For more North American mountain country, explore the geology and photographs of the Tetons, or drive the high country on Tioga Road in Yosemite.