The Olympic Mountains is a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of western Washington in the United States. The mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are not especially high - Mount Olympus is the highest at 7,962 ft (2,427 m) - but the western slopes of the Olympics rise directly out of the Pacific Ocean and are the wettest place in the 48 contiguous states. On the wetter end of the spectrum, 140 and 170 inches (3,600 and 4,300 mm) of rain falls on the Hoh Rainforest annually. Conversely, areas to the northeast of the mountains are located in a rain shadow and receive as little as 16 in (410 mm) of precipitation. Most of the mountains are protected within the bounds of the Olympic National Park.
Physiographically, they are a section of the larger Pacific Border province, which is in turn a part of the larger Pacific Mountain System.
Read more about Olympic Mountains: Geography, Geology, Ecology, History, List of Summits
Famous quotes containing the words olympic and/or mountains:
“Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else.”
—Joseph Heller (b. 1923)
“Fogs and clouds which conceal the overshadowing mountains lend the breadth of the plains to mountain vales. Even the small-featured country acquires some grandeur in stormy weather when clouds are seen drifting between the beholder and the neighboring hills.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)