We just say “the Olympics” when we talk about our rainy national park, a bumpy line of peaks we can see over the Sound. Named for the home of the gods, Olympic National Park reigns as the fifth most visited national park in the country. Its three million annual visitors rank just behind blockbusters like Yosemite and Yellowstone.
It helps that Olympic National Park is in pieces: one big round blob encompassing the peaks and rain forest, then a sliver that runs a third of the length of Washington’s Pacific shore. Visitors stream into the meadows of Hurricane Ridge, the sands of Kalaloch, and the forest canopies of Hoh—or all three.
It took two Presidents Roosevelt to preserve the nearly one million acres of Olympic National Park. Today it cradles forest creatures you won’t find anywhere else, rare temperate rain forest where winters drown in up to 14 feet of rain, and the largest unmanaged elk herd in the world. But now the park faces dwindling federal funding, and the challenge of removing dams that have gummed up its rivers for a century. Zeus may have lived on Olympus once upon a time, but these days the Olympics, and the expansive lands that make up Olympic National Park, are our treasure and our responsibility.
10 Top Places to Visit in Olympic National Park
Whether you're hiking, camping, boating, or all the above—these are the must-visit places for your trip's itinerary.
Follow the Park Ranger (On a Bear Hunt)
The smokey the bear hat leads us on a real-life bear hunt.
Insider’s Guide to Olympic National Park: Summer Things to Do
Stargaze at Hurricane Ridge, swim in the mineral pools of the Sol Duc Valley, or rock climb Mount Cruiser.
Insider’s Guide to Olympic National Park: Park Trails You Don’t Know
From experts who do.
Insider’s Guide to Olympic National Park: Places to Stay in the Park
Room with a View Backcountry camping in Enchanted Valley. Image: Kim Nelmark IF YOU'RE PICKYOf the park’s 16 campgrounds, Kalaloch is the only one to take reservations (recreation.gov), though waterfront erosion has…
Insider’s Guide to Olympic National Park: Poet of the Park
Tim McNulty serves as unofficial poet laureate of the Olympics.
Insider’s Guide to Olympic National Park: Where the Wild Things Are
Image: Philip Cheaney ELK The Roosevelt elk is such a signature species that the park was almost named for it. The unmanaged herd of about 5,000 is the biggest in the world…
Insider’s Guide to Olympic National Park: Timeline of Olympic National Park
Image: JColl/iStockphoto 25,000 to 10,000 BCE A giant ice sheet covers and carves the northwestern United States. Mount Olympus still has the third largest glacial system in the continental U.S. today. By…
The Elwha’s Last Dam Summer
It began 25 years ago as a radical idea: destroying two dams to save the Elwha River. It ends this month as a commonsense solution. Gentlemen, start your jackhammers.
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