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Olympic National Park in Washington state is a vast national park with over 920,000 acres of wilderness, including beaches, rainforests, and glaciers. Visitors can camp, hike, and explore the park’s many archaeological and historic sites. The park is divided into three main areas: mountains, forests, and the ocean. Scenic drives like Hurricane and Deer Park offer visitors the chance to camp and hike in the mountains, while the coast has over 70 miles of coastline with sandy beaches and rocky cliffs. The park has two types of forests, temperate and lowland, and offers lodging options like Log Cabin Resort and Lake Crescent Lodge. Pets are not allowed on most trails or beaches.
Olympic National Park, located outside of Port Angeles, Washington, is a United States-designated national park. It encompasses more than 920,000 acres (3,723 sq km), nearly 95 percent of which is Congressional wilderness. The park is known for its wide variety of landscapes, ranging from Pacific Ocean beaches to humid rainforests to snow-capped glaciers. About 650 sites of archaeological interest are found in the Olympic National Park as well as more than 100 historic structures. People visit the park to camp, hike, photograph, and explore the landscape, plants, animals, and cultural discoveries.
There are three main areas in the Olympic National Park: the mountains, the forest and the ocean. Two of the most popular scenic drives in the park are the areas called Hurricane and Deer Park in the mountains. Both offer visitors the opportunity to camp, hike, and picnic along scenic Alpine roads. These roads are only open during the summer months because snow accumulates during the winter, blocking access. As roads are only in the outer parts of the park, the inner wilderness cannot be visited by car.
Located along part of the Pacific Ocean, Olympic National Park has approximately 73 miles (117.5 km) of coastline. The coast varies from sandy beaches to rocky cliffs with steep drops to the ocean below. Many coastal areas of the park, such as Mora Beach, Rialto Beach, Kalaloch and Lake Ozette, have campsites, picnic areas and nature trails. When hiking a coastal path, it’s often a good idea to bring and use a tide table, as many coastal paths go underwater when the tide comes in.
There are two types of forests in Olympic National Park: temperate forests and lowland forests. The western valley of the park is a temperate forest. It receives more than 12 feet (3.7 m) of rain annually. The Hoh Rainforest and the Quinault Rainforest are both prime examples that can be found in the western part of the park. The park’s lowland forest areas, such as Staircase, Heart O’the Hills, Elwha, Lake Crescent and Sol Duc, are known for their mature forests and pristine rivers.
For visitors who don’t want to camp, there are other lodging options within Olympic National Park, such as Log Cabin Resort, Lake Crescent Lodge, Kalaloch Lodge, and Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort. Other park features include the Sol Duc Hot Springs and boat rentals at Lake Crescent. Pets are not allowed on most park trails or beaches, but they are allowed in campgrounds, parking lots, and picnic areas. As a result, you should make arrangements for most pets before visiting the park.
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