Olympic Peninsula - Geography

Geography

The Olympic Peninsula is home to temperate rain forests, including the Hoh, Queets, and Quinault. Rain forest vegetation is concentrated primarily in the western part of the peninsula, as the interior mountains create a rain shadow effect in areas to the northeast, resulting in a much drier climate in those locales.

The Olympic mountain range sits in the center of the Olympic Peninsula. This range is the second-largest in Washington State. Its highest peak is Mt. Olympus.

Major salmon-bearing rivers on the Olympic Peninsula include, clockwise from the southwest: the Humptulips, the Quinault, the Queets, the Quillayute, Bogachiel, the Sol Duc, the Lyre, the Elwha (see Elwha Ecosystem Restoration), the Dungeness, the Dosewallips, the Hamma Hamma, the Skokomish, and the Wynoochee River.

Natural lakes on the peninsula include Kitsap Lake, Lake Crescent, Lake Ozette, Lake Sutherland, Lake Quinault, and Lake Pleasant. Four dammed rivers form the reservoirs of Lake Aldwell, Lake Mills, Lake Cushman, and Wynoochee Lake.

The peninsula contains many state and national parks, including Anderson Lake, Bogachiel, Dosewallips, Fort Flagler, Fort Worden, Kitsap Memorial, Lake Cushman, Manchester, Mystery Bay, Old Fort Townsend, Potlatch, Sequim Bay, Shine Tidelands, and Triton Cove state parks; Olympic National Park; and the Olympic National Forest. Within the Olympic National Forest, there are five designated wilderness areas: The Brothers, Buckhorn, Colonel Bob, Mt. Skokomish, and Wonder Mountain. Just off the west coast is the Washington Islands Wilderness.

A major effort is under way to protect additional wilderness areas on the Olympic National 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. Wild Olympics Campaign

Clallam and Jefferson Counties, as well as the northern parts of Grays Harbor and Mason Counties, are on the peninsula. The Kitsap Peninsula, bounded by the Hood Canal and the Puget Sound, is an entirely separate peninsula and is not connected to the Olympic Peninsula.{}

From Olympia, the state capital, U.S. Route 101 runs along the Olympic Peninsula's southern edge and up the western and northern shorelines. Port Angeles, the Peninsula's second-largest town, was once designated as the United States Auxiliary Capitol.