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TheOlympic Peninsula is a largepeninsula inWestern Washington that lies acrossPuget Sound fromSeattle, and containsOlympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by thePacific Ocean, the north by theStrait of Juan de Fuca, and the east byHood Canal.Cape Alava, the westernmost point in thecontiguous United States, andCape Flattery, the northwesternmost point, are on the peninsula. Comprising about 3,600 square miles (9,300 km2), the Olympic Peninsula contained many of the last unexplored places in the contiguous United States. It remained largely unmapped until Arthur Dodwell and Theodore Rixon mapped most of its topography and timber resources between 1898 and 1900.[1]
Clallam andJefferson Counties, as well as the northern parts ofGrays Harbor andMason Counties, are on the peninsula. TheKitsap Peninsula, bounded by the Hood Canal and Puget Sound, is an entirely separate peninsula and is not connected to the Olympic Peninsula.
FromOlympia, the state capital,U.S. Route 101 runs along the Olympic Peninsula's eastern, northern, and western shorelines.
TheOlympic mountain range sits in the center of the Olympic Peninsula. This range is the second largest in Washington State. Its highest peak isMt. Olympus.
A major effort called theWild Olympics campaign is under way to protect additional wilderness areas on the Olympic Peninsula, protect salmon streams under the Wild and Scenic River Act and provide a means for Olympic National Park to offer to buy land adjacent to the Park from willing sellers.
Most of the peninsula has anoceanic climate, orCfb under theKöppen climate classification. Most populated areas, however, have a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, orCsb.
The Olympic Peninsula is home totemperate rain forests, including theHoh, Queets Rain Forest, andQuinault. Rain forest vegetation is concentrated primarily in the western part of the peninsula, as the interior mountains create arain shadow effect in areas to the northeast, resulting in a much drier climate in those locales.
Major salmon-bearing rivers on the Olympic Peninsula include, clockwise from the southwest, theHumptulips, theQuinault, theQueets, theQuillayute,Bogachiel, theSol Duc, theLyre, theElwha (seeElwha Ecosystem Restoration), theDungeness, theDosewallips, theHamma Hamma, theSkokomish, and theWynoochee River.
Natural lakes on the peninsula includeLake Crescent,Lake Ozette,Lake Sutherland,Lake Quinault, andLake Pleasant. Two dammed rivers form the reservoirs ofLake Cushman andWynoochee Lake; two previous reservoirs, destroyed in the Elwha Ecosystem Restoration wereLake Aldwell (behind the formerElwha Dam) andLake Mills (behind the formerGlines Canyon Dam).
The peninsula contains many state and national parks, includingAnderson Lake,Bogachiel,Dosewallips,Fort Flagler,Fort Worden,Lake Cushman,Mystery Bay,Old Fort Townsend,Potlatch,Sequim Bay,Shine Tidelands, andTriton Cove state parks;Olympic National Park; and theOlympic National Forest. Within the Olympic National Forest, there are five designatedwilderness areas:The Brothers,Buckhorn,Colonel Bob,Mt. Skokomish, andWonder Mountain. Just off the west coast is theWashington Islands Wilderness.
The Olympic Peninsula is represented in theU.S. House of Representatives byDemocratEmily Randall. It is represented in theWashington State Legislature by Democraticstate senatorKevin Van De Wege and Democraticstate representativesMike Chapman andSteve Tharinger.
Olympic Peninsula travel guide from Wikivoyage47°47′54″N123°37′05″W / 47.79833°N 123.61806°W /47.79833; -123.61806
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