Home of the gods
Tucked into the far northwestern corner of the contiguous United States and just 72 miles west of Seattle, the Olympic National Park is a study in contrast. Nowhere else in the United States can you find towering mountains, a rugged shoreline and temperate rainforests within an area easily accessible in a single day.
Like the original Mount Olympus, the mountains of the ONP seem to be a home for the gods with peaks that reach to nearly 8000 feet with glaciers and glacier shaped valleys. They provide a home for endangered and not so endangered plants and animals (over 20 of which are found no place else on earth) and an opportunity for us poor mortals to literally climb above it all.
And just a few hours away the coastal areas of the Olympic Peninsula are unlike any we had ever seen before. Beaches are covered with enormous logs, trunks of trees washed from the banks of rivers running through the forests that are later scrubbed of their branches and washed back onto the beach where they protect the sea cliffs behind them. Beyond, jutting out of the ocean enormous sea stacks provide refuge for the many species of birds that make up one of the largest seabird colonies in the United States.
Image: Ruby beach with large tidepool in the foreground and sea stacks in the background, taken September 2006
