Encompassing 922,000 acres, Olympic National Park invites visitors to explore three distinct ecosystems: subalpine forest and wildflower meadow; temperate forest; and the rugged Pacific shore.
Inside the park, the Olympic mountain range is nearly circular, contoured by 13 rivers that radiate out like the spokes of a wheel.
Its features were indeed shaped by water and ice; about 30 million years ago, the plate carrying the Pacific Ocean floor collided with the plate supporting the North American continent.
Glaciers nearly one mile thick also gouged out Puget Sound and Hood Canal to the east, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north, isolating the peninsula from the mainland.
