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The land of the Olympic Peninsula varies widely in its different areas. Of the 922,000 acres of the park, windswept Pacific coastline, snowy peaks, and temperate rainforest comprise most of it, although there are many rivers, glaciers, and miles of trails and coastline. There are many hot springs in the park, extending from the southeast to northeast corners of the Olympic peninsula. Some can be easily reached from nearby roads, while others are sometimes found in more remote areas of the park. These pools are about one foot deep and temperatures range from mildly warm to as high as 54°C. Pushed up out of the earth by plate tectonics, the Olympic mountains form a circle in the center of the park. Altough they are not as high as those of other ranges, they remain impressive and can reach altitudes of 1500 to 2200 meters. In fact, the mountains of this range are so weather-beaten and wild that they have not been thouroughly explored. The mountains act as rain sheilds, causing clouds to dump all their moisture on the lush forests west of them. The forests on their east side recieve only 50 cm of rain annually. |
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57 miles of Pacific coastline are a separate part of the park. Beaches are either sand or large rocks, and often have dead trees lying at the water's edge. Large mounds of earth, called sea stacks, stand slightly offshore in many places. They are pieces of land that used to be a part of the mainland, but with most or all of the connecting earth having been washed away by the waters. Few towns are in the peninsula, making the area seem remote despite how close it is to Seattle and surrounding area. The population of the Olympic remains small, and there are no coastal towns at all. |
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