Olympic National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in Washington, USA. With an area of 628,115 acres (2,541.89 km2), it nearly surrounds Olympic National Park and the Olympic Mountain range. Olympic National Forest contains parts of Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, and Mason counties. The landscape of the national forest varies, from the temperate Olympic rain forest to the salt water fjord of Hood Canal to the peaks of Mt. Washington.
Annual precipitation averages about 220 inches (5.6 m), giving rise to streams such as the Humptulips River.
Olympic National Forest was originally created as Olympic Forest Reserve in 1897, then renamed to Olympic National Forest in 1907. A 1993 Forest Service study estimated that the extent of old growth in the Forest was 266,800 acres (108,000 ha). It is administered in two ranger districts: the Pacific Ranger District on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula, and the Hood Canal Ranger District on the east side.
Forest headquarters are located in Olympia, with ranger district offices in Forks, Quinault, and Quilcene. The former office in Hoodsport closed in 2005, and now houses a local Chamber of Commerce, which still sells Northwest Forest Passes.
Other Washington towns near entrances of the forest include Port Angeles, Sequim, and Amanda Park.
Read more about Olympic National Forest: Points of Interest
Famous quotes containing the words olympic, national and/or forest:
“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)
“Let us waive that agitated national topic, as to whether such multitudes of foreign poor should be landed on our American shores; let us waive it, with the one only thought, that if they can get here, they have God’s right to come.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“If I were a Brazilian without land or money or the means to feed my children, I would be burning the rain forest too.”
—Sting [Gordon Matthew Sumner] (b. 1951)