| rdfs:comment | - Olympic National Park is one of the many natural wonders that lie within the borders of Washington. The park is in the Northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula, which is directly across Puget Sound from Seattle and the rest of Washington. The park can be classified into three distinct areas: the rainforest, the coastline, and the Olympic Mountain Range. Each of these offer some of the wildest, most pristine wilderness to still exist in the continental United States. The rainforest is temperate, and is one of only a few existing in the world. Within this area are two separate forests, the Hoh Rain Forest and the Quinalt Rain Forest, each named after the river that flows through them. Together these rainforests receive up to 140 inches of rain a year, making them the wettest areas in the co
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| abstract | - Olympic National Park is one of the many natural wonders that lie within the borders of Washington. The park is in the Northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula, which is directly across Puget Sound from Seattle and the rest of Washington. The park can be classified into three distinct areas: the rainforest, the coastline, and the Olympic Mountain Range. Each of these offer some of the wildest, most pristine wilderness to still exist in the continental United States. The rainforest is temperate, and is one of only a few existing in the world. Within this area are two separate forests, the Hoh Rain Forest and the Quinalt Rain Forest, each named after the river that flows through them. Together these rainforests receive up to 140 inches of rain a year, making them the wettest areas in the continental US. Because of the abundant rainfall, the rainforest is blanketed with plant life on the floor, with mosses, ferns, and lichen covering just about everything. The forest is dominated by Western Hemlock, Sitka Spruce, Douglas Fir trees, some of which tower over the forest at heights exceeding 300 feet. Naturally there is of course the amazing greennes that naturally abounds in a place receiving 12 feet of rain a year. The 73 miles of coastline is quite varied. Beaches are either sandy, rocky, or strewn with huge boulders and driftwood. Other parts of the coast have enormous majestic cliffs with stunning views of the Pacific Ocean. On the coastline, animal lovers can sometimes spot puffins, auklets, and sea otters, amonger other creatures. The Olympic Mountains make up the third area of the park. These are the jagged, usually snow-covered peaks you can see from Seattle when you look west. Mount Olympus is the tallest of the Olympic Mountains at 7,980 feet, and the mountain also has the third largest glacial system of any mountain in the United States. A very stunning view of these mountains, and the easiest to access is found at Hurricane Ridge, which is accessible by automobile and open from May to roughly the middle of fall.
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