Author: Nobenaa Ahsan

The Olympic National Park glaciers are some of the most closely watched ice in the country, and the news from them is hard. From the Blue Glacier on Mount Olympus to small ice fields tucked under the high ridges, the park’s glaciers are shrinking as the climate warms. Here is what scientists have measured, why it matters for rivers and salmon, and what the rest of us can do.

How many glaciers are in Olympic National Park?

According to the park’s National Park Service glacier page, Olympic had 266 glaciers in 1982 and 184 in 2009. Comparing aerial photos from the late 1970s with 2009, park scientists found that glacier area had fallen by 34%. Ice volume dropped by at least 15% between 1987 and 2009.

A later study counted again using 2015 images and a wider definition that includes perennial snowfields. Because the methods differ, the counts below aren’t a straight line, but every survey points the same way.

Olympic glacier surveys compared

Survey	What was counted	Combined area
1980 inventory	266 glaciers	45.9 km² (about 17.7 sq mi)
Riedel and others, 2015	184 glaciers over 0.01 km²	30.2 km² (about 11.7 sq mi)
Fountain and others, 2022 (2015 images)	255 glaciers and perennial snowfields	25.34 km² (about 9.8 sq mi)

The 2022 study by Andrew Fountain and colleagues found that the 2015 ice cover was about half of what it was in 1900. Since 1980, 35 glaciers and 16 perennial snowfields have disappeared altogether. Its models suggest the Olympic Mountains glaciers will largely disappear by 2070.

The Blue Glacier on Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus rises to 7,980 feet, the highest peak in the Olympic Mountains, and catches 50 to 70 feet of snow a year. That snow feeds the Blue Glacier, the park’s best known river of ice. It runs 2.6 miles, is up to 900 feet thick, and moves about 3 feet a day in its fastest parts.

Decades of measurement make the Blue Glacier one of the most studied glaciers in the world. That record shows steady loss. Its end retreated about 325 feet between 1995 and 2006, and the lower glacier thinned by 178 feet from 1987 to 2009.

A century of change in photos

Some of the clearest evidence comes from repeat photography: the same view, shot decades apart. The park pairs an 1899 photo of the Blue Glacier with one from 2008, and the difference is striking. Old Forest Service photos like the one below help fill in the story.

Glaciers melting in the Olympic Mountains

Some glaciers are already gone. The Anderson Glacier on Mount Anderson shrank to less than 10% of its former size between 1927 and 2009, and was essentially gone by 2015. The Lillian Glacier vanished completely between 1905 and 2010.

Why so fast? Olympic glaciers sit close to the Pacific, and the 2022 study found they respond mainly to air temperature rather than to how much falls from the sky. Warmer winters turn more snow to rain, and warmer summers melt more ice.

Why the glaciers matter: rivers, salmon and summer

Olympic summers are surprisingly dry. Glacier melt helps keep rivers running and cold when the rain stops, which matters for salmon, steelhead and bull trout.

The Hoh River depends on ice the most. A 2015 study in the Journal of Glaciology by Jon Riedel and colleagues estimated that glacier melt makes up 9 to 15% of the Hoh’s flow from May through September. In August and September that share rises to 18 to 30%.

Other rivers lean on ice less. The same study put glacier melt at 2.5 to 4% of the Elwha’s summer flow. You can read how that river is healing in our story on Elwha River dam removal and restoration.

Seeing glaciers from Hurricane Ridge

You don’t need to climb to see the ice. Hurricane Ridge sits 17 miles south of Port Angeles, and on a clear day the view south and southwest takes in the snowy interior of the park, with Mount Olympus and the Bailey Range on the skyline. Binoculars help.

Summer visitors come for the meadows too, so pair a glacier view with our guide to Hurricane Ridge wildflower season. Reaching the Blue Glacier itself is a long wilderness trip up the Hoh valley, so check park rules and permits first.

Climate change in Olympic National Park: how you can help

No one person can save a glacier, but we can all help the park cope with change. A few ways to start:

• Learn from the scientists. Glaciers have been a topic in the park’s Winter Perspectives lecture series, which we support.
• Tread lightly. Fragile meadows near snow and ice heal slowly, so follow the same Leave No Trace habits we use on the coast.
• Take a repeat photo. Photograph a favourite viewpoint each year from the same spot and note the date. Over time, your own pictures tell the story.
• Support the park and its research. Membership in a friends group keeps local people involved in the park’s future.

The glaciers are one reason Olympic is recognised around the world. Read why in our post on Olympic National Park as a World Heritage Site, and if you’d like to stand with the park, become a member of Friends of Olympic National Park.

Frequently asked questions

Local business support matters a great deal to a small national park nonprofit like ours. Friends of Olympic National Park is a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) in Port Angeles, and the shops, breweries and companies around us help in ways big and small. Here is what that support looks like, what it has already done for FONP, and how your business can take part.

Why local businesses matter to a park friends group

We are a small, volunteer-led group. Our volunteer board of 12 community members runs cleanups, guided walks, Junior Ranger Day and the Winter Perspectives Series, and funds park activities the National Park Service budget doesn’t cover. Every dollar and every pair of hands goes a long way.

Businesses on the North Olympic Peninsula also have a stake in a healthy park. Visitors who come for Hurricane Ridge, the Hoh or the coast eat, sleep and shop in our towns. When a business helps the park, it helps the place its customers came to see.

Host a giveback night: a Port Angeles business fundraiser

A giveback night is the simplest Port Angeles business fundraiser there is. A business picks a day, shares a portion of its sales with a nonprofit, and both sides invite their friends. Customers do what they would do anyway, and the park benefits.

Our own example is Worthy Wednesday at Mighty Pine Brewing. On Earth Day, April 22, 2026, the brewery at 540 E 8th St in Port Angeles gave 15% of all sales from 2 PM to 9 PM to Friends of Olympic National Park. Thank you, Mighty Pine.

What makes a giveback night work

• A clear share of sales, announced ahead of time
• A date with a hook, such as Earth Day or the start of summer
• Both partners sharing the event with their own customers and members
• A few volunteers on hand to say thank you and talk about the park

Corporate giving: small grants go a long way

Corporate giving for a national park doesn’t have to mean a big check. On February 20, 2025, FONP was awarded a $250 Clean Trail Program Grant from Extreme Terrain. The funds are for trail maintenance, as needed and directed by trail crews working in the park.

You can read about it on our Extreme Terrain Clean Trail grant page. Trail work is close to our hearts, from park crews to our own Heart O’ the Forest adopt-a-trail crew. If your company runs a community grant program, we would be glad to apply.

In-kind gifts: goods and services

Not every gift is cash. A café might bring coffee to a cleanup morning, a print shop might print flyers for a talk, or a hardware store might offer gloves and bags. Skills count too, from photography to bookkeeping.

Before you box anything up, please email us. We are a small group with no warehouse, so we’ll tell you honestly what we can use right now.

Employee volunteer days

A morning outdoors together is good for a team. Our public work days include beach cleanups, Visitor Center grounds cleanups and invasive plant pulls, and a group from one workplace is welcome to join. Volunteers register through Volunteer.gov.

Start with our guide to beach cleanups in Olympic National Park and the list of upcoming events. Then email us with your group’s size, and we’ll suggest a work day that fits.

Matching gifts and volunteer grants

Many employers match the gifts their staff make to charities, and some also give a grant when an employee volunteers a set number of hours. The rules differ from company to company, so check with your HR or giving team.

If your employer offers a match, you’ll usually need our legal name and Tax ID. We are Friends of Olympic National Park, a registered 501(c)(3), Tax ID 02-0619892. A matched gift on Giving Tuesday for Olympic National Park doubles what you give.

Ways a business can help, compared

Option	What it involves	Good fit for
Giveback night	Share of one day’s sales	Breweries, restaurants, cafés
Grant	A set amount for a project	Companies with giving programs
In-kind gift	Goods, printing or skills	Shops and service firms
Volunteer day	Staff join a public work day	Teams that want time outdoors
Matching gift	Employer matches staff gifts	Employers of any size
Direct gift	A one-time or yearly donation	Any business owner

Business sponsorship and how we say thank you

We don’t publish sponsorship tiers or benefit packages. Each partnership is worked out with our board, and we keep thanks simple and honest, such as a mention on our events page or at the event itself.

Under IRS rules on advertising and qualified sponsorship payments, a charity naming a sponsor or showing its logo counts as an acknowledgment, not advertising. Endorsements or price information would cross that line. How a gift counts on your own return is a question for your accountant.

Inside the park itself, the rules are stricter. National Park Service policy (Director’s Order 21) notes that federal law bars advertising, endorsements and the sale of naming rights in parks. We are a local friends group, not the park, so we never promise a logo on a park sign.

How to get started

1. Pick the kind of help that suits your business from the table above.
2. Email fonp2020@gmail.com with your idea and a few dates.
3. Agree on the details with our board, then tell your customers.

Prefer to give directly? Visit our page to support Olympic National Park, or contact our volunteer board. To see how we fit alongside the park’s other partners, read our guide to Olympic National Park support organizations.

Frequently asked questions

Support · Planned Giving · Legacy

A legacy gift to a national park nonprofit is a gift you plan now that reaches the park later, usually through your will or a beneficiary form. For people who have walked Olympic’s beaches and forests for decades, it is a way to pass that love on. Here is how the common options work, in plain terms, and what to tell your attorney about Friends of Olympic National Park.

What a legacy gift is, and what it is not

Planned giving simply means arranging a gift now that is made later, often after your lifetime. It costs nothing today, and you can usually change your mind as long as you live.

It is different from a memorial gift, which honors someone who has already died. If that is what you have in mind, our guide to memorial gifts for Olympic National Park covers it.

We should be clear about one thing. Friends of Olympic National Park is a small, volunteer-led group with no formal legacy society or planned giving office. What we can offer is a direct, personal conversation, and the accurate details below.

Three common ways to leave a gift

1. A bequest in your will or trust

A bequest is a gift written into your will or living trust. It can be a set dollar amount, a percentage of your estate, or what remains after other gifts are paid (often called the residue).

Some people make a contingent bequest instead, which takes effect only if another beneficiary is no longer living. Your attorney can draft whichever form fits your plans and your state’s rules.

2. A beneficiary designation

Retirement accounts and life insurance policies generally pass by the beneficiary form you file with the plan or insurer, not by your will. You can name a charity as a full, partial or backup beneficiary on that form.

This is often the simplest legacy gift to set up, because it usually needs only the company’s form. Ask your plan administrator or insurer for the right one, and ask your advisor how leaving retirement money to a charity compares with leaving it to family.

3. A qualified charitable distribution from an IRA

This one happens during your lifetime. If you are at least 70½, your IRA trustee can send money straight to a qualified charity. According to IRS Publication 526 on charitable contributions, the total for 2025 can’t be more than $108,000, and ongoing SEP and SIMPLE IRAs don’t qualify.

A nontaxable QCD can’t also be claimed as a charitable deduction. The IRS updates the limit, so check the current figure with your tax preparer before you give.

Legacy gift options compared

Option	How you set it up	When the gift arrives
Bequest	Wording in your will or trust	After your lifetime
Retirement account beneficiary	The plan’s beneficiary form	After your lifetime
Life insurance beneficiary	The insurer’s beneficiary form	After your lifetime
Qualified charitable distribution	Ask your IRA trustee, age 70½ or older	Now, during your lifetime

How to make a bequest to Friends of Olympic National Park

Your attorney or financial institution will need our exact details. Please use them as written, so your gift reaches us and not a similarly named group.

• Legal name: Friends of Olympic National Park
• Status: 501(c)(3) nonprofit, founded 2002
• Tax ID (EIN): 02-0619892
• Address: P.O. Box 3238, Port Angeles, WA 98362
• Email: fonp2020@gmail.com

Sample wording to share with your attorney

Your attorney will adapt this, but a simple bequest often reads like this: “I give [a sum, a percentage of my estate, or the residue of my estate] to Friends of Olympic National Park, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Tax ID 02-0619892, P.O. Box 3238, Port Angeles, WA 98362, for its general purposes.”

“General purposes” lets our volunteer board use the gift where it is most needed when it arrives. If you would like to support a particular kind of work, email us first so we can talk about what is realistic for a small, all-volunteer group.

What a gift in your will supports

Our mission is to “preserve Olympic National Park’s natural, cultural and recreational resources for the benefit of present and future generations.” We do that four ways: we educate, volunteer, fund and honor.

Gifts to us fund educational programs, trail maintenance and restoration efforts throughout the park. Our seven projects include the Heart O’ the Forest adopt-a-trail crew, beach and Visitor Center cleanups, the Children’s Discovery Room, graffiti removal, guided nature walks, National Junior Ranger Day and the Winter Perspectives Series.

Our guide to ways to support Olympic National Park explains how we differ from the other groups that support the park, which helps if you are choosing between them.

Tell us, if you would like to

You never have to tell us about a legacy gift. If you choose to, email fonp2020@gmail.com so we can thank you and make sure our details in your documents are right. There is no form to fill in and no obligation.

This is not legal or tax advice

This page explains common options in general terms only. Estate and tax rules depend on your state and your situation, so please talk with an estate attorney or financial advisor before you change your will or beneficiary forms.

Ways to give now, too

Many people pair a future gift with support today. You can make a gift to support Olympic National Park by mail or email, at any amount, one time or yearly. You can also become a member from $15 a year and get our friends-only newsletter.

Frequently asked questions

Volunteer · Youth · Families

Teen volunteer opportunities in a national park are closer than many Port Angeles families think. Olympic National Park runs a trail program for high school groups, lets teens join summer marmot surveys with an adult, and offers youth pathways toward park careers. Our own volunteer days are a friendly first step.

Youth volunteer programs at Olympic National Park

The park’s Volunteer and Youth Office in Port Angeles looks after these programs. Details change from year to year, so treat this as a map and confirm the current season with the park before you plan around it.

Adopt-A-Trail Youth Crew for high school groups

This is the park’s main high school volunteer program near Port Angeles. Motivated groups of high school students from communities around the park adopt a trail, attend a training on basic trail maintenance, trail etiquette and tools, and then report trail conditions to the park’s trail crew.

Each group commits to at least three work days a year. According to the park’s Adopt-A-Trail Youth Crew page, the work can count for science, English or career and technical credit through the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center natural resources class. With extra commitment it can also become a senior culminating project.

Olympic marmot surveys for ages 13 to 17

The park says children aged 13 to 17 can join the summer marmot surveys when a responsible adult comes along. It’s a big trip for a parent and teen together: 5 or 8 days in July or August, backpacking 5 to 20 miles with real elevation gain and moving off trail on steep, loose ground.

Applications typically open in mid-January and run through June 1, and they can close early if teams fill. To meet the animal you’d be counting, read our profile of the Olympic marmot at Hurricane Ridge.

Pathways for youth and older teens

The park’s Pathways for Youth page aims to connect young people with careers in the National Park Service. It lists senior culminating projects, the Adopt-A-Trail crew and volunteer internships designed for recent high school graduates and college students.

It also describes a two-week summer Wilderness School for high school youth with NatureBridge and the Student Conservation Association. The park calls it a work in progress that depends on funding, so ask whether it’s running before you count on it.

Junior Ranger: the younger pathway

Younger brothers and sisters can start with the Junior Ranger program. Pick up a booklet at any visitor center in the park and complete the steps to become an Olympic National Park Junior Ranger.

National Junior Ranger Day is one of the seven projects we support, and Olympic has hosted it at the Visitor Center in Port Angeles. Our page on National Junior Ranger Day at Olympic National Park explains how the day works.

The rule every volunteer under 18 needs to know

Each NPS volunteer signs a volunteer service agreement. The Park Service’s volunteer program manual on onboarding says all volunteers under 18 must use the individual form, OF-301a, signed by a parent or legal guardian.

• A school or youth group permission slip does not replace the signed OF-301a.
• Minors can’t sign on through the group form, OF-301b, so a school or scout group needs one form per student.
• Programs set their own age limits, so read each listing. Marmot surveys, for example, need an adult with teens.

Teen volunteer options compared by age and commitment

Option	Who it suits	Commitment
Junior Ranger	Younger kids and siblings	One visit with a booklet
FONP volunteer days	Families; ask us about ages	One morning
Adopt-A-Trail Youth Crew	High school groups	Training plus 3 or more days a year
Marmot surveys	Ages 13 to 17 with an adult	5 or 8 days, July or August
Volunteer internships	Recent graduates and college students	Ask the park

Service hours in a national park: keep your own record

Many students need service hours for school, clubs or scholarships. Park volunteering can count, but your school decides what qualifies, so check with a counselor before you start.

1. Register for the listing on Volunteer.gov and keep the confirmation.
2. Write down the date, place, task and hours after each shift.
3. Ask the leader on the day who can sign or confirm your hours.

Hours with federal sites can also add up toward a free pass over time. Our guide to the America the Beautiful Volunteer Pass explains the 250-hour rule.

Volunteer days with Friends of Olympic National Park

Our days are short, hands-on and family-friendly. Recent ones include the Visitor Center cleanup and pollinator garden morning in Port Angeles, the Spring Coastal Cleanup in the Kalaloch area and an invasive-plant cleanup at the entrance sign garden.

Each day is registered through Volunteer.gov, and at our fall cleanup we provided hand tools and water while volunteers brought gloves, sunscreen and a hat. Age rules can differ by event, so ask our volunteer board about bringing your teen before you sign up.

How Friends of Olympic National Park helps

We’re a volunteer-led friends group that works in close partnership with the National Park Service. We don’t run the park’s youth programs, but we make the first step easy. Our step-by-step guide to volunteering at Olympic National Park covers Volunteer.gov sign-up, and our upcoming volunteer events list the next dates.

Student membership is $15 a year and includes volunteer opportunities and our friends-only newsletter. It’s an easy way for a teen to become a member and hear about each day first.

Frequently asked questions

Visit · Rain Forest · Park Nature

The Olympic National Park rainforest is one of the finest temperate rain forests in the lower 48 states, a place where moss hangs from every branch and fallen giants feed the next generation of trees. It fills four valleys on the park’s west side. Here is what makes it a temperate rain forest, how the valleys compare, and how to visit without spending your morning in a line of cars.

What makes a temperate rain forest

A temperate rain forest needs two things: a great deal of rain and mild weather. Storms rolling in off the Pacific drop 140 to 167 inches of precipitation a year on these valleys, which is 12 to 14 feet. Down low, temperatures seldom fall below freezing, and summer highs rarely pass 80°F.

The National Park Service calls these valleys some of the best examples of primeval temperate rain forest in the lower 48. Similar forests grow in only a few other places, including Chile, New Zealand and southern Australia. The park’s rain forest is also one reason UNESCO lists Olympic as a World Heritage Site.

The four rain forest valleys compared

All four valleys open to the west, toward the ocean storms that feed them. Each has its own feel, from the busy Hoh to the quiet Bogachiel.

Hoh, Quinault, Queets and Bogachiel at a glance

Valley	Getting there	Short walk to try
Hoh	About 2 hours from Port Angeles, under 1 hour from Forks	Hall of Mosses, 0.8 mile loop
Quinault	About 3 hours from Port Angeles, 1 hour from Forks	Kestner Homestead, 1.3 mile loop
Queets	A short drive from the Quinault area	Sam’s River Loop, 2.8 miles
Bogachiel	Trailhead on Olympic National Forest land	Bogachiel Rain Forest Trail, 1.6 miles to the park

Hoh Rain Forest

The Hoh is the classic choice, with a visitor center, a campground and two short loops. The Hall of Mosses runs 0.8 mile and the Spruce Nature Trail 1.2 miles. For more, the Hoh River Trail heads 18.5 miles upriver toward the Blue Glacier moraine, and you can turn around wherever you like.

Quinault Rain Forest

The Quinault valley has a scenic loop drive and the Quinault Rain Forest Ranger Station, a good place to start. A 1.3 mile loop leads to the old Kestner homestead, and another short loop winds through groves of bigleaf maple. The Quinault Rain Forest Nature Trail off South Shore Road is run by Olympic National Forest, so it takes a Northwest Forest Pass or an interagency pass.

Queets and Bogachiel

These two are the quiet ones. In the Queets, the level Sam’s River Loop passes through several stages of rain forest, though winter storms often leave trees across it. The longer Queets River Trail starts with a river ford that is often waist deep in summer and can be impossible after heavy rain.

The Bogachiel Rain Forest Trail begins on national forest land and reaches the park boundary in 1.6 miles. Dogs are not allowed past the park boundary.

Nurse logs and colonnades

On a forest floor this crowded, a seedling’s best chance is often a fallen tree. Seedlings sprout on these nurse logs, and their roots grow down around the log into the soil. When the log rots away, the trees are left standing on stilt-like roots in a straight row, a pattern called a colonnade.

Dead wood can take centuries to break down. Along the way it shelters mosses, fungi, small mammals, amphibians and insects, which is why our mushroom season guide for the Olympic Peninsula spends so much time on fallen logs.

Mosses, ferns and other epiphytes

Much of the green you see is not growing in soil at all. Epiphytes, plants that live on other plants, cover trunks and branches: mosses, ferns, lichens and spikemoss. They take their water from the rain and mist, not from the tree, and they give the forest its jungle look.

Big trees: Sitka spruce, western hemlock and bigleaf maple

Sitka spruce and western hemlock rule the rain forest, and many are hundreds of years old and up to 250 feet tall. When the park was created in 1938, its founding law aimed to protect the finest primeval forests of Sitka spruce, western hemlock, Douglas fir and western red cedar in the country. Bigleaf maples add a softer layer, their limbs thick with spikemoss and licorice fern.

Roosevelt elk, the forest’s gardeners

These valleys hold the largest wild herds of Roosevelt elk in the United States. Their browsing shapes the forest floor and often keeps the understory open. Read more about them in our guide to Roosevelt elk in Olympic National Park.

Tips for visiting the Hoh Rain Forest

From mid or late June, the Hoh Rain Forest Visitor Center parking area can be full by 10 am every day. Traffic is then metered at the single-lane entrance station, with cars let in as others leave. The park does not mention a timed entry or reservation system for the Hoh.

• Arriving between 10 and 11 am or 4 and 6 pm, the park estimates a 30 to 45 minute wait.
• Arriving between 11 am and 4 pm, plan on 1 to 2 hours.
• For a quieter walk and a better chance at wildlife, come before 10 am, after 5 pm, or in the off season.
• Pets are not allowed on Hoh trails, and the visitor center closes from January to early March.

Check the park’s summer visiting guide and its page on Olympic’s temperate rain forests before you go. Stay on the trail, leave the moss on the logs, and pack out what you bring, the same habits in our Leave No Trace guide for the Olympic coast.

How Friends of Olympic National Park helps

We are a volunteer-led friends group that works alongside the park. Our guided mushroom walks and trail days help neighbours and visitors see the forest up close. To lend a hand, see our volunteer opportunities at Olympic National Park.

Frequently asked questions

Learn · Park Nature · History

Olympic National Park is a World Heritage Site because few places on Earth pack glaciated mountains, old-growth temperate rain forest and a wild Pacific coast into one protected landscape. UNESCO added the park to its World Heritage List in 1981, five years after it became an International Biosphere Reserve. Here is what earned those titles, and what they do and don’t change for the park we love.

The UNESCO World Heritage listing at a glance

The World Heritage List recognizes places whose value reaches beyond any one country. To be listed, a site must meet at least one of UNESCO’s criteria. Olympic meets two natural ones: criterion (vii), for superb natural beauty, and criterion (ix), for outstanding examples of ecosystems still evolving on their own.

Congress made Olympic a national park in 1938, and the park protects 922,651 acres. UNESCO notes that 95 percent of the listed property is federally protected wilderness. For the longer story of how the park came to be, see our Olympic National Park history timeline.

Olympic’s two international designations

Designation	Year	What it recognizes
International Biosphere Reserve	1976	A place to study how nature and people can thrive together
World Heritage Site	1981	Outstanding universal value under criteria (vii) and (ix)

Three ecosystems in one park

UNESCO calls Olympic the largest protected area in the world’s temperate region that holds, in one unbroken whole, every step from the ocean’s edge through temperate rain forest and alpine meadows to glaciated peaks. High rainfall, steep terrain and ten major watersheds stack those life zones close together. The National Park Service sums it up as three ecosystems: mountains, rain forest and coast.

Olympic’s three ecosystems compared

Ecosystem	Why UNESCO values it	Where to see it
Glaciated mountains	Glaciers at the lowest latitude where they form below 2,000 meters	Mount Olympus and the high country
Temperate rain forest	One of the world’s largest stands of virgin temperate rain forest	Hoh, Quinault, Queets and Bogachiel valleys
Wild coast	The longest undeveloped coast in the contiguous United States	Ruby Beach, Rialto Beach and Kalaloch

Glaciated mountains

Mount Olympus rises to 7,980 feet and gets an estimated 50 feet of snow a year. UNESCO points out that Olympic is the lowest latitude in the world where glaciers form below 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet) and reach below 1,000 meters (about 3,300 feet). Ice has carved the range into craggy peaks, deep valleys and bowl-shaped cirques.

Old-growth temperate rain forest

In the west-side valleys, storms off the Pacific bring 140 to 167 inches of precipitation a year. UNESCO notes that the coastal rain forest reaches its fullest development here, with a mass of living plants that may be the highest anywhere in the world. Many of the largest conifer species on Earth grow in these valleys.

Our guide to the temperate rainforests of Olympic National Park compares the four rain forest valleys and the best short trails in each.

A wild Pacific coast

UNESCO counts 100 kilometers of wilderness coastline in the park, the longest undeveloped coast in the contiguous United States. Rocky islets and sea stacks stand offshore, left behind as the waves keep wearing the shoreline back. Eleven major river systems drain the mountains to the sea, giving salmon and other fish that live in both fresh and salt water some of the best habitat in the country.

Endemic species found nowhere else

The Olympic Peninsula is isolated, with salt water on three sides. UNESCO says that isolation produced endemic wildlife, subspecies of trout, plant varieties and unique fur colors in mammals, signs of a separate course of evolution. The park lists the Olympic marmot, Olympic snow mole and Olympic torrent salamander among animals found here and nowhere else.

Just as telling is what never lived here. The park notes that grizzly bears, wolverines, lynx, red foxes and pikas did not occur on the peninsula. Meet the park’s best-known local in our story on the Olympic marmot of Hurricane Ridge.

Olympic as a biosphere reserve

Before the World Heritage listing came a different honor. In 1976 the park was named an International Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme. Biosphere reserves are meant as living laboratories, places for research and learning about how people and nature can do well side by side.

What World Heritage status does and doesn’t mean

The title is recognition, not a transfer of control. The National Park Service notes that each country that signs the World Heritage Convention keeps sovereignty over its sites, and the United States was the first nation to ratify it. Olympic is still owned by the American people and managed by the park under the laws that created it.

• It does: mark the park as one of the world’s great natural places and draw attention to anything that threatens it.
• It doesn’t: change who owns the park, who manages it, or the rules visitors follow.
• It asks: that the values on the list be kept whole for future generations.

You can read the full statement of value on the UNESCO World Heritage listing for Olympic National Park.

How Friends of Olympic National Park helps

World-class places still need local hands. Our volunteers pick up debris on the coast through our beach cleanups in Olympic National Park, and our adopt-a-trail crew cares for the Heart O’ the Forest Trail. We also lead guided walks and help with National Junior Ranger Day, so the next generation learns why this park matters.

Membership keeps that work going. Become a member of Friends of Olympic National Park for our newsletter and invitations to events, or see our volunteer opportunities.

Frequently asked questions

Olympic National Park history begins long before any boundary line. People have lived on the Olympic Peninsula for thousands of years, and federal protection came in three steps: a forest reserve in 1897, a national monument in 1909 and a national park in 1938. This timeline walks through each chapter, right up to recent events.

Olympic National Park timeline at a glance

Year	Milestone
About 13,800 years ago	Earliest evidence of people in the region
1855-1856	Treaties cede tribal lands to the United States
1897	Olympic Forest Reserve created
1909	Mount Olympus National Monument proclaimed
1933	Monument transferred to the National Park Service
1938	Olympic National Park established
1953	Coastal Strip and Queets Corridor added
1976	International Biosphere Reserve
1981	World Heritage Site
1988	Olympic Wilderness designated
2002	Friends of Olympic National Park founded
2011-2014	Elwha River dams removed
2017	Wilderness rededicated for Daniel J. Evans
2023	Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge lost to fire

First peoples of the Olympic Peninsula

The park’s story starts with the people who have always called this place home. In 1977 a farmer digging a pond just outside today’s park found mastodon remains with a bone point lodged in a rib. In 2011 scientists dated that point to 13,800 years ago, the earliest evidence of people in this region.

According to the park’s page on ancient peoples and area tribes of the Olympic Peninsula, eight tribes have traditional ties to lands now in the park: the Hoh, Jamestown S’Klallam, Lower Elwha Klallam, Makah, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Quileute, Quinault and Skokomish. Their ancestors ceded lands and waters to the federal government in treaties signed in 1855 and 1856. These are living nations, and their cultures remain tied to these rivers, forests and coast.

From forest reserve to Mount Olympus National Monument

On February 22, 1897, President Grover Cleveland created the Olympic Forest Reserve, about 2.2 million acres. Later cuts shrank it, and in 1907 it was renamed Olympic National Forest.

Concern for the peninsula’s elk drove the next step. On March 2, 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Mount Olympus National Monument, 610,560 acres set aside mainly as a refuge for elk. The animals now carry his name as Roosevelt elk.

The monument didn’t stay whole. In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson cut it roughly in half, partly because of wartime demand for timber. On June 10, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved what remained from the Forest Service to the National Park Service.

FDR’s 1937 visit and the 1938 national park

Bills to create a park failed through the 1920s and 1930s. In late September 1937 Franklin Roosevelt toured the peninsula himself, met with local leaders and agency staff at Lake Crescent about the park’s size, and spoke to a crowd in Port Angeles.

Congress acted the next summer. The act of June 29, 1938, established Olympic National Park at about 682,000 acres and abolished the monument. It also let the president enlarge the park, and on January 2, 1940, Roosevelt added 187,411 acres.

Adding the coast and the high country

The 1950s brought two big changes. The two-story Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge was built in 1952, giving visitors a base high in the mountains. On January 6, 1953, President Harry Truman added 47,753 acres, including the Coastal Strip, the Queets Corridor and part of the Bogachiel Valley.

The Coastal Strip brought a long run of wild Pacific beaches into the park. That coast is where our volunteers now haul out marine debris during beach cleanups in Olympic National Park.

World recognition and wilderness

In 1976 UNESCO named the park an International Biosphere Reserve. In 1981 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its natural values. Read more in our post on why Olympic National Park is a World Heritage Site.

On November 16, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Washington Park Wilderness Act. It set aside 877,000 acres, about 95 percent of the park, as the Olympic Wilderness.

A 2016 law renamed the area for Daniel J. Evans, the former Washington governor and senator who introduced the 1988 bill. The park rededicated it under his name in 2017.

Recent chapters: the Elwha and Hurricane Ridge

Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act in 1992. Removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams began on September 17, 2011, and finished in 2014. Our post on Elwha River dam removal and restoration tells that story.

On May 7, 2023, the Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge burned to the ground. It was closed for rehabilitation at the time, and no one was hurt. The building also held the area’s power, water and communications hub, so the loss shaped access to the ridge for months afterward.

Where Friends of Olympic National Park fits

Friends of Olympic National Park (FONP) was founded in 2002. We’re a volunteer-led friends group based in Port Angeles, one of many that support parks across the country, as our guide to national park friends groups explains.

History lovers can dig deeper with our guide to historical structures in Olympic National Park or the story of the Enchanted Valley Chalet move. The next chapter is being written by people like you, so become a member of Friends of Olympic National Park and help care for the park.

Frequently asked questions

Elwha River restoration began in September 2011, when crews started taking down the two dams that had blocked the river for a century. By 2014 both the Elwha Dam and the Glines Canyon Dam were gone, and the river was running free from the Olympic Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Here’s what happened, what has come back, and how to see it for yourself.

Why the Elwha dams came out

Both dams were built in the early 1900s to make hydropower for the growing town of Port Angeles. The Elwha Dam went up from 1910 to 1913 on the lower river and never received a federal license. The 210 foot Glines Canyon Dam followed upstream from 1925 to 1927, and a 1940 boundary expansion brought its site inside the park.

The dams stopped salmon from swimming upstream. The National Park Service notes that the Elwha once held eleven kinds of salmon and trout, and that the river was an important food source for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. The reservoirs also flooded tribal homelands and cultural sites.

The tribe pushed for change for decades. In 1986 it was granted intervenor status in the federal relicensing case for the dams, and in 1991 it joined conservation groups in petitions to the Ninth Circuit. In October 1992 Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act, which called for full restoration of the river and its native fish runs.

How the Elwha dam removal worked

After about two decades of planning, the National Park Service calls what followed the largest dam removal in U.S. history. Crews took the dams down in stages so the river could carry its stored sediment away a little at a time.

Elwha River restoration timeline

When	What happened
1910-1913	Elwha Dam built, forming Lake Aldwell
1925-1927	Glines Canyon Dam built, forming Lake Mills
1986	Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe joins the relicensing case
October 1992	Restoration Act signed into law
September 17, 2011	Dam removal begins
March 2012	Elwha Dam fully removed
2014	Glines Canyon Dam removal completed

Where all that sediment went

Nearly 100 years of sand, gravel and silt had piled up behind the dams, about 30 million tons in all. According to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Elwha River Restoration Project, about two thirds of it, roughly 20 million tons, was released.

USGS researchers found that most of the sediment released in the first two years moved right through the river to the coast. Part of it built out the delta at the river mouth, bringing new beach and nearshore habitat to a shoreline that had been starved of sediment for a century.

The Elwha River salmon return

Fish didn’t wait for the work to finish. In September 2013 a survey team from the park, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, USGS, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and NOAA Fisheries counted 1,741 adult Chinook salmon and 763 nests. About three quarters were upstream of the old Elwha Dam site.

In September 2014 park staff found adult Chinook in the former Lake Mills, above the Glines Canyon site, for the first time in more than a century. With both dams gone, salmon and steelhead can reach more than 70 miles of river and streams.

Replanting the old lakebeds

Draining Lake Mills and Lake Aldwell left wide slopes of bare sediment. The park’s revegetation plan aimed to cover that ground with more than 400,000 native plants, grown mostly at its Matt Albright Native Plant Center greenhouse from seeds and cuttings gathered for the job.

One goal was to keep invasive, non-native plants from taking over the newly exposed soil. Park botanists and volunteers began planting in the reservoirs during the first year of dam removal, with monitoring and replanting planned for years afterward.

The draining also uncovered something deeply important to the Lower Elwha Klallam people. In July 2012 park cultural resources staff located the tribe’s creation site, long described in Klallam oral history, and tribal members confirmed it. The park does not share its location, and disturbing cultural sites is against the law.

The Elwha River today

The Olympic Hot Springs Road up the Elwha Valley is closed to vehicles because of a washout. It stays open to people on foot, bicycles and dogs on leashes, and the Madison Falls parking area is open, though parking is tight. Check the park’s current road conditions for Olympic National Park before you go.

The Glines Canyon site is far up the road, so reaching it today takes a long walk or a bike ride. Bring water, stay on the pavement and trails, and leave any artifacts or cultural objects exactly where you find them.

How Friends of Olympic National Park helps

Friends of Olympic National Park (FONP) is a local, volunteer-led friends group, and we weren’t part of the dam removal. The same work goes on closer to home, though. Our volunteers pull weeds and tend native plants at the Visitor Center in Port Angeles.

• Learn which native plants for pollinators grow well on the Olympic Peninsula.
• See how volunteers tackle invasive plants on the Olympic Peninsula.
• Put the Elwha in context with our Olympic National Park history timeline.

If the Elwha’s comeback inspires you, make a gift to support Olympic National Park through our volunteer projects, or find volunteer opportunities in Olympic National Park.

Frequently asked questions

Roosevelt elk in Olympic National Park are the largest land mammals in the park, and seeing a herd step out of the mossy Hoh Rain Forest is a moment few visitors forget. These elk helped bring the park into being, and they still shape the forests they live in. Here is how to find them, and how to watch them safely.

Meet the Roosevelt elk

The park says it protects the largest fully wild herd of Roosevelt elk in the Pacific Northwest, about 3,000 to 4,000 animals. They are darker and larger than Rocky Mountain elk. The park’s Roosevelt elk page puts cows at about 600 to 700 pounds and bulls at up to 1,100 pounds.

Only males grow antlers. Bulls shed them each spring and grow a new set over the summer, so the big racks show best in late summer and fall. In the Hoh, cows and calves travel in herds of about 20, while bulls wander alone or in small groups.

Roosevelt elk bulls and cows compared

Feature	Bulls	Cows
Weight	Up to 1,100 pounds	About 600 to 700 pounds
Antlers	Yes, shed each spring	None
Social life	Alone or small groups	Herds with their calves
In the rut	Bugle and spar for cows	Gather in harems

How elk shape the rain forest

Walk the Hoh and you will notice how open the forest floor feels beneath the giant trees. That is partly the elk’s work. The park explains that elk browse understory plants, creating the open, park-like character of the forest, and that their grazing often helps keep the understory open.

Elk are also the largest plant eaters on the peninsula, so their numbers say a lot about the health of the whole ecosystem. Too many in one place can overgraze and strip an area of plants. Read more about these forests in our guide to the temperate rainforests of Olympic National Park.

The elk that helped create a national park

By the end of the 1800s, elk had nearly disappeared from the Olympic Peninsula. In 1909 President Theodore Roosevelt established Mount Olympus National Monument to protect them from overhunting. The elk, once called Olympic elk, were renamed in his honour.

By the time Olympic National Park was established in 1938, elk numbers had rebounded. Our Olympic National Park history timeline follows the full story, from forest reserve to monument to park.

Where to see elk in Olympic National Park

Most sightings happen in the park’s lower valleys and rain forests, and the park’s Quinault area brochure suggests looking in old homestead fields. Elk can turn up at any hour, but dawn and dusk are best. The broad west side valleys are ideal habitat, and their herds are larger and less migratory than those on the east side.

Elk viewing areas compared

Area	What to look for
Hoh Rain Forest	Resident herds that stay year-round
Quinault Valley	Cows, calves and young bulls in old homestead fields
Elwha Valley	Herds grazing open clearings in spring
High meadows	Migratory elk in summer

Park biologists keep track of these herds. By 2014 the park had run yearly helicopter counts since 2011 over the high meadows of the Elwha, Hoh, Queets and Quinault valleys, working with the U.S. Geological Survey, the state wildlife department and tribes. A 2014 count was funded by a grant from Washington’s National Park Fund.

The Quinault Valley is also the starting point for the long hike to the historic chalet in our story of the Enchanted Valley Chalet move.

Rut season: the September bugle

In September, bulls bugle with high, squealing calls and compete for groups of cows, sometimes gathering harems of up to 30. Rival bulls charge, chase and spar with their antlers. It is thrilling to hear, and it is also when bulls are most dangerous.

In October 2015 the park closed the Hoh Campground to overnight use for most of the month. Elk there had grown used to people and lost much of their natural fear, which put campers at risk during the rut.

Elk safety in a national park

The park’s wildlife viewing guidance asks visitors to stay at least 150 feet from elk. Its elk page sets 100 feet, about three bus lengths, as the minimum, so when in doubt give them the larger space. Approaching or feeding wildlife is illegal in the park.

• Use extra caution in the spring calving season and the fall rut.
• If elk are in or near a parking area, stay in your vehicle.
• If you meet an elk on a trail, make noise, avoid eye contact and back away slowly.
• Leave calves alone. A mother elk is usually nearby and rarely abandons her calf.

An elk that feels threatened may kick or chase. A simple rule from the park: if you cause an animal to move, you are too close.

How Friends of Olympic National Park helps

We are Friends of Olympic National Park (FONP), a volunteer-led friends group in Port Angeles. Through our guided nature walks, we help visitors enjoy wildlife from a respectful distance.

Members receive our friends-only newsletter and invitations to annual events. To support this work, become a member of Friends of Olympic National Park. Love high country animals too? Meet the Olympic marmot of Hurricane Ridge.

Frequently asked questions

The Olympic marmot is a chubby, whistling ground squirrel that lives in the high meadows of the Olympic Mountains and nowhere else on Earth. Summer visitors to Hurricane Ridge often meet one beside the trail, sunning on a rock or chewing a mouthful of lupine. Here is what we have learned about our mountain neighbour, and how to watch it well.

Why the Olympic marmot is found nowhere else

The Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus) is endemic, which means its whole range is one small place. According to the park’s Olympic marmot page, it lives in mountain meadows above about 4,000 feet across the Olympic Mountains, though it is rare in the wetter southwest. About 90 percent of that habitat is protected inside Olympic National Park.

In 2009 the Washington State Legislature named it the state’s official endemic mammal. The state wildlife department adds that the species lives in subalpine and alpine meadows and talus slopes near timberline.

Olympic marmot facts: life in a colony

An adult is about the size of a housecat, with a long bushy tail and brownish fur mixed with white. Marmots live in family groups: one adult male, one or more adult females, and young from several years. A colony shares a home range of half an acre to five acres, dotted with burrows.

That loud, piercing whistle you hear on the trail is an alarm. It warns the colony of a predator or intruder, and it tells hikers they have walked into marmot country.

An Olympic marmot’s year compared

Season	What marmots are doing
May and June	Waking up hungry; eating roots and even gnawing on trees
Summer	Feasting on fresh flowers such as lupine and glacier lilies
Late summer	Fattening up; they can double their body weight
September or early October	Entering hibernation for seven to eight months

Hibernation: the long sleep

By the time they head underground, adults can weigh 15 pounds or more. During hibernation a marmot’s body temperature drops below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and its heart can slow to three beats a minute. It neither eats nor drinks, waking briefly about every ten days before sinking back into torpor.

That leaves only a short snow-free season to eat, raise young and store fat. In a given year only about 30 percent of adult females produce a litter, of one to six pups, and about half of the young die by the next spring.

Population concerns and research

Olympic marmot numbers fell in the 1990s and early 2000s. The park links the decline at least partly to coyotes, which are not native to the Olympic Peninsula. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife reports that coyote predation was the most common cause of death for adult females from 2002 to 2006, and that numbers have possibly stabilized since 2007.

Climate is the bigger long-term worry. WDFW lists reduced snowpack and trees creeping into open meadows among the threats, and the state treats the marmot as a candidate species of greatest conservation need. Marmots have already vanished from some of the driest meadows in the northeast Olympics.

Where to see marmots at Hurricane Ridge

The park’s wildlife viewing advice points to trails near Hurricane Ridge and other alpine trails in summer. Because marmots hibernate, you will not see them in winter. The paved Hurricane Hill trail, 1.6 miles one way, is a favourite, and hikers often spot marmots grazing near its edges among the Hurricane Ridge wildflowers.

• Look on open, grassy slopes with scattered rocks and burrow mounds.
• Listen for the alarm whistle, then scan the slope below it.
• Bring binoculars so you can watch from the trail without stepping closer.

Watching marmots the right way

It is illegal to feed, approach or harass wildlife in the park, small mammals included. The park asks visitors to stay at least 150 feet from wildlife and offers a simple rule: if you cause an animal to move, you are too close. Feeding leads to unnatural behaviour, dependence on people and poor nutrition.

Stay on the trail, too. Marmot meadows are fragile, and every shortcut tramples the plants these animals depend on. WDFW also asks people never to feed coyotes, since that can increase predation on marmots.

The Olympic Marmot Monitoring volunteer program

Since 2010 the park has run a citizen science survey whose volunteers are known as Marmoteers. Teams hike to remote meadows and record whether marmots are present in each habitat patch. Trends come from the share of patches that are occupied, and marmots are detected about 90 percent of the time when they are there.

• Who: groups of two to six; teens aged 13 to 17 can join with a responsible adult.
• When: trips of 5 or 8 days in July or August, after a training day that includes practice on Hurricane Hill.
• Effort: access hikes of 5 to 20 miles, plus off-trail travel on steep, loose ground.
• Applying: the 2026 season filled early; the park expects the next window to open around Groundhog Day.

How Friends of Olympic National Park helps

We are Friends of Olympic National Park (FONP), a volunteer-led friends group in Port Angeles. Our guided wildflower and nature walks help visitors enjoy meadow wildlife without disturbing it. Our guide to volunteering in Olympic National Park explains how to register for park programs on Volunteer.gov, and teens can start with our teen volunteer opportunities.

Frequently asked questions

Want to give back to the meadows you love? See our volunteer opportunities at Olympic National Park.