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138-484: This landform was originally christened "Mt. Eldridge" by the 1889-90 Seattle Press Expedition , for William C. Eldridge, a journalist from Washington D.C. Early pioneers of the area referred to the mountain as "Old Hurricane" because of hurricane-force winds in winter, and in 1897 it was named Hurricane Hill by prospector W. A. Hall who climbed it from the Elwha Valley on a particularly windy day. During World War II,

276-852: A mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The mountains , part of the Pacific Coast Ranges , are not especially high – Mount Olympus is the highest summit at 7,980 ft (2,432 m); however, the eastern slopes rise precipitously out of Puget Sound from sea level, and the western slopes are separated from the Pacific Ocean by the low-lying 20 to 35 km (12 to 22 mi) wide Pacific Ocean coastal plain . These densely forested western slopes are

414-618: A 13' by 13' observation cabin was constructed at the top for the Aircraft Warning Service and was manned by wildlife cinematographer Herb Crisler and his wife in 1942–43. The lookout has since been removed, while Dodger Point and Pyramid Peak Lookouts are the only stations remaining in Olympic National Park of the thirteen that were constructed. Based on the Köppen climate classification , Hurricane Hill

552-472: A co-dominion of interests in the region in lieu of a settlement. In 1840, American Charles Wilkes explored in the area. John McLoughlin , Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company , headquartered at Fort Vancouver, was the de facto local political authority for most of this time. This arrangement ended as U.S. settlement grew and President James K. Polk was elected on a platform of calling for annexation of

690-843: A consequence of the high precipitation, northern latitude, and cool moderating climate adjacent to the Pacific Ocean. There are about 184 glaciers and permanent ice fields crowning the Olympics peaks. The most prominent glaciers are those on Mount Olympus covering approximately 10 square miles (26 km ). Beyond the Olympic complex are the glaciers of Mount Carrie and others in the Bailey Range , Mount Christie , Mount Queets , and Mount Anderson , however most of these have experienced significant decrease in both length and mass in recent decades, with several disappearing completely in

828-628: A deep and wide gorge around the rim of the Columbia Plateau and through the Cascade Range on its way to the Pacific Ocean. Because many areas have plentiful rainfall and mild summers, the Pacific Northwest has some of North America's most lush and extensive forests, which are extensively populated with Coast Douglas fir trees, the second tallest growing evergreen conifer on earth. The region also contains specimens of

966-559: A dense moss layer on the forest floor. The rain forests are the wintering grounds for herds of Roosevelt elk and it is thought that browsing by the elk is responsible for the open shrub layer and the dominance of Sitka spruce over western hemlock. The rain forests are just one type of forest found in the Olympic Mountains. Franklin and Dyrness set out 5 forest zones: Sitka spruce, western hemlock, silver fir , mountain hemlock , and subalpine parkland. Other authors include

1104-550: A diversity of cultures and societies. Some areas were home to mobile and egalitarian societies. Others, especially along major rivers such as the Columbia and Fraser, had very complex, affluent, sedentary societies rivaling those of the coast. In British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, the Haida and Tlingit erected large and elaborately carved totem poles that have become iconic of Pacific Northwest artistic traditions. Throughout

1242-691: A nation of hunters". Maritime fur trader Charles William Barkley also visited the area in Imperial Eagle , a British ship falsely flying the flag of the Austrian Empire . American merchant sea-captain Robert Gray traded along the coast, and discovered the mouth of the Columbia River . Explorer Alexander Mackenzie completed in 1793 the first continental crossing in what is called today central British Columbia and reached

1380-705: A part of the Great Basin Desert , although by their northern and eastern reaches, dry land and desert areas verge at the end of the Cascades' and Coast Mountains ' rain shadows with the boreal forest and various alpine flora regimes characteristic of eastern British Columbia, the Idaho Panhandle and western Montana roughly along a longitudinal line defined by the Idaho border with Washington and Oregon. The North American inland temperate rainforest

1518-517: A part of the Pacific Ocean floor (separate from the Pacific plate) inched eastward toward North America about 35 million years ago and most of the sea floor subducted beneath the continental land mass of the North America plate. Some of the sea floor, however, was scraped off and jammed against the mainland, creating the dome that was the forerunner of today's Olympics. In this particular case,

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1656-567: A population of approximately 530,000), the Okanagan Valley in the British Columbia interior (about 350,000 people centered around the city of Kelowna, which has close to 200,000 people). Large geographical areas may only have one mid-sized to small-sized city as a regional center (often a county seat), with smaller cities and towns scattered around. Vast areas of the region may have little or no population at all, largely due to

1794-474: A sixth, Douglas-fir zone. Different plant associations are typical of one or more forest zones. For instance, the rain forest plant association described above is a member of the Sitka spruce forest zone. The Sitka spruce zone is a lowland zone dominated by Sitka spruce and western hemlock. Precipitation is high, winters are mild, elevations are low. This forest zone is typically found at very low elevations on

1932-510: A suitable harbor to repair his ailing ship. On June 17, Drake and his crew found a protected cove when they landed on the Pacific coast of what is now Northern California. While ashore, he claimed the area for Queen Elizabeth I as Nova Albion or New Albion . Juan de Fuca , a Greek captain sailing for the Crown of Spain , supposedly found the Strait of Juan de Fuca around 1592. The strait

2070-602: A third Spanish expedition, under the command of Ignacio de Artega in the ship Princesa , and with Quadra as captain of the ship Favorite , sailed from Mexico to the coast of Alaska, reaching 61° N . Two further Spanish expeditions, in 1788 and 1789, both under Esteban Jose Martínez and Gonzalo López de Haro , sailed to the Pacific Northwest. During the second expedition, they met the American captain Robert Gray near Nootka Sound . Upon entering Nootka Sound, they found William Douglas and his ship Iphigenia . Conflict led to

2208-450: A varied ecosystem. The Olympic rain forests are composed primarily of Sitka spruce and western hemlock , as are the surrounding lowland Sitka spruce forests, but are distinct in having a relative abundance of groves of bigleaf maple and vine maple , which support large epiphytic communities of mosses, lichens, ferns, and clubmosses; an abundance of nurse logs on the forest floor; a relatively open forest canopy and sparse shrub layer; and

2346-622: A very large presence in Tacoma's Hilltop and South Tacoma neighborhoods, Seattle's Central District and Rainier Valley neighborhoods, and in Portland's Northeast Quadrant. There are growing numbers in Vancouver as well, particularly Africans, Jamaicans and Black people from the United States. Beginning in the late 20th century, a general suburbanization of East and South Asian communities occurred in Vancouver, prompting concerns regarding

2484-796: Is a diverse geographic region, dominated by several mountain ranges, including the Coast Mountains , the Cascade Range , the Olympic Mountains , the Columbia Mountains , and the Rocky Mountains . The highest peak in the Pacific Northwest is Mount Rainier, in the Washington Cascades, at 14,410 feet (4,392 m). Immediately inland from the Cascade Range are broad, generally dry plateaus. In

2622-708: Is a function of both elevation and precipitation, particularly the amount of snow that falls each winter. The growing season for trees is relatively short in the higher elevations of the windward Olympics, compared to similar elevations in other mountain ranges, due to the large accumulations of snow that take a long time to melt each year. Subalpine meadows in the Olympic mountains are of 5 types. Heath shrub meadows are dominated by ericaceous huckleberries and heathers. Lush herbaceous meadows are typified by Sitka valerian and showy sedge . Drier areas or those with longer snow cover grow dwarf sedge ( Carex nigricans ) or grass ( Festuca viridis ) meadows. Phlox diffusa typifies

2760-640: Is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common conception includes the U.S. states of Oregon , Washington , Idaho , and the Canadian province of British Columbia . Some broader conceptions reach north into Alaska and Yukon , south into northern California , and east into western Montana . Other conceptions may be limited to

2898-506: Is another Pacific Northwest endemic. Slugs are abundant in the Olympic forests, outweighing mammals and birds combined. They thrive in the cool damp shade of the forests. The banana slug is the largest and most conspicuous of Olympic slugs. Northern spotted owl ( Strix occidentalis caurina ) is an old-growth dependent species and is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The majority of spotted owls on

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3036-663: Is closely associated with the North Central Rockies forests ecoregion designated by the WWF , which extends over a similar range but incorporates various non-temperate rainforest ecosystems. The overwhelming majority of the population of the Pacific Northwest is concentrated in the Portland–Seattle–Vancouver corridor. As of 2016, the combined populations of the Lower Mainland region (which includes

3174-586: Is defined as being the Northwestern United States specifically, excluding Canada . The Pacific Northwest has been occupied by a diverse array of indigenous peoples for millennia. The Pacific Coast is seen by some scholars as a major coastal migration route in the settlement of the Americas by late Pleistocene peoples moving from northeast Asia into the Americas. The coastal migration hypothesis has been bolstered by findings such as

3312-466: Is dominated by mountain hemlock . It occurs along with subalpine fir from 1,100 to 1,650 metres (3,610 to 5,410 ft) in the Bailey Range; however, the range of this forest type is not extensive and does not extend much west of Mount Olympus, nor is it common in the east. Chamaecyparis nootkatensis|Yellow-cedar is sometimes found in relation to these plants. In the east and other drier areas,

3450-448: Is due to immigration quotas at the federal level, as while Canada has one-tenth the population of the United States, it takes in one-quarter as many immigrants, many of whom are from Asia. Vancouver settled about a quarter of all emigrants from Hong Kong to Canada in the late 1980s. In the U.S. side of the region, Latinos make up a large portion of the agricultural labor force east of the Cascade Range, and are an increasing presence in

3588-543: Is in the so-called interior wet-belt, approximately 500–700 km inland from the Pacific coast on western, windward mountain slopes and valley bottoms of the Columbia Mountains and the Rocky Mountains . The interior wet-belt refers to a discontinuous band of humid forest patches, that are scattered over 1000 km between Purden Lake in Canada's British Columbia (54° North) and Montana and Idaho's Bitterroot Mountains and Idaho's Salmon River Mountains (45° North). It

3726-477: Is in turn a part of the larger Pacific Mountain System . The Olympics have the form of a domed cluster of steep-sided peaks surrounded by heavily forested foothills and incised by deep valleys. They are surrounded by water on three sides, separated from the Pacific by the 20 to 35 km (12 to 22 mi) wide coastal plain. The general form of the range is more or less circular, or somewhat horseshoe-shaped, and

3864-413: Is located in the marine west coast climate zone of western North America . Weather fronts originating in the Pacific Ocean travel northeast toward the Olympic Mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks ( orographic lift ), causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snow. As a result, the Olympics experience high precipitation, especially during the winter months in

4002-743: Is part of the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness . The national park is surrounded on the south, east, and northwest sides by the Olympic National Forest, with five wilderness areas, and on the southwest side by the Clearwater State Forest with one Natural Area Preserve (Washington Department of Natural Resources), and the Quinault Indian Reservation. State parks and wildlife areas occur in the lower elevations. Precipitation varies greatly throughout

4140-429: Is possible on Vancouver Island due to the mild winters. The Big Dark is a term for winter in the Pacific Northwest. At a latitude of almost 48 degrees north , Seattle has sunsets before 6 PM between October and March, and fewer than nine hours of daylight for many weeks around the winter solstice. The darkness contributes to seasonal affective disorder among people living in northern cities, including those in

4278-412: Is reduced to isolated stands of trees called tree islands, surrounded by subalpine meadows, in the subalpine parkland zone. Variations in substrate, topography, moisture, and snowpack depth and duration determine the vegetation community. Tree islands form on convex topography, which tends to gather less snow and shed it sooner than surrounding level or concave topography. In the west, the subalpine zone

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4416-424: Is represented by its largest and longest-lived species, and some of its second and third ranked species as well. Biomass accumulations are among the highest in the temperate forest zones. Dominance of conifers is thought to be a result of the amount and timing of precipitation. The dry summers limit the growth of deciduous trees, such as most hardwoods. Evergreens, such as most conifers, are able to take advantage of

4554-565: Is the largest carnivore in the Olympics. Their main prey are deer and elk but they also hunt porcupines and insects. They are rarely seen , but are thought to be widespread and relatively common in the Olympics. The mountain goat ( Oreamnos americanus ) is not native to the Olympic Mountains but was introduced for hunting in the 1920s by a coalition of the Forest Service, the Clallam County Game Warden, and

4692-733: Is the largest of the world's temperate rain forest ecoregions in the system created by the World Wildlife Fund , stretches along the coast from Alaska to California. The dry desert inland from the Cascade Range and Coast Mountains is very different from the terrain and climate of the coastal area due to the rain shadow effect of the mountains, and comprises the Columbia, Fraser and Thompson Plateaus and mountain ranges contained within them. The interior regions' climates largely within Eastern Washington, south central British Columbia, Eastern Oregon, and southern Idaho are

4830-679: Is the only hummingbird in the Olympics. They overwinter in Mexico and southern California, arriving in the Olympics in February or March with the flowering of the Indian plum Oemleria cerasifera . Harlequin duck ( Histrionicus histrionicus ) breeds in fast-moving mountain streams in the Olympics. They spend the rest of the year in coastal waters. Osprey ( Pandion haliaetus ) and bald eagle ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) fish in Olympic rivers, nesting in large old trees. Both are relatively common,

4968-567: Is the silver fir zone, up to about 3,900 feet (1,200 m). This zone gets more precipitation, and more of it as snow, than the lower, warmer, drier western hemlock zone. The cold and the snowpack combine to limit growth of lower-elevation plants. On the other hand, silver fir is less drought tolerant and less fire tolerant than either Douglas-fir or western hemlock. Slide alder ( Alnus viridis sinuata ) grows in snow-creep areas and avalanche chutes, along with yellow-cedar . Meadows of thimbleberry also grow in this zone, often intergrading between

5106-458: Is thought to be a result of the relative lack of frequent windstorms like tropical cyclones . Along the western flanks of the mountains the increased orographic precipitation supports temperate rain forests in the Quinault, Queets, Hoh, and Bogachiel river valleys at low elevations. Protection by Olympic National Park, has allowed these rain forests to retain old growth trees, which supports

5244-626: The 1700 Cascadia earthquake . The geological record reveals that "great earthquakes" (those with moment magnitude 8 or higher) occur in the Cascadia subduction zone about every 500 years on average, often accompanied by tsunamis . There is evidence of at least 13 events at intervals from about 300 to 900 years. Active volcanoes in the region include Mount Garibaldi , Mount Baker , Mount Rainier , Mount St. Helens , Mount Adams , Mount Hood , Mount Meager , Mount Jefferson , Mount Shasta , Lassen Peak and Glacier Peak . The Pacific Northwest

5382-540: The Canadian province of British Columbia. Broader definitions of the region have included the U.S. states of Alaska and parts of the states of California, Montana, and Wyoming, and the Canadian territory of Yukon . Definitions based on the historic Oregon Country reach east to the Continental Divide , thus including all of western Montana and western Wyoming . Sometimes, the Pacific Northwest

5520-582: The Discovery Islands , charting the coastline together. They passed through Johnstone Strait and Cordero Channel and returned to Nootka Sound. As a result, the Spanish explorers, who had set out from Nootka, became the first Europeans to circumnavigate Vancouver Island. Vancouver himself had entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca directly without going to Nootka first, so had not sailed completely around

5658-786: The Duwamish Indians , while the first European to see them, the Spanish navigator Juan Pérez , named Mount Olympus "Santa Rosalia", in 1774. But the English captain John Meares , seeing them in 1788, thought he would honor the Greek explorer Juan de Fuca who claimed to have found the fabled Northwest passage nearby by naming the mountain after the mythical home of Greek gods which is " Mount Olympus " in Greece . Various names for

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5796-462: The Hoh Rainforest annually, receiving the most measured precipitation of anywhere in the contiguous United States. Areas to the northeast of the mountains are located in a rain shadow cast by the mountain themselves, and receive as little as 16 in (410 mm) of precipitation around the city of Sequim. Annual precipitation increases to about 30 in (760 mm) on the edges of

5934-589: The Inside Passage , even though it is not an official international waterway. Disputes between British Columbia and Alaska over the Dixon Entrance of the Hecate Strait between Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii have not been resolved. The Northwest is still highly geologically active, with both active volcanoes and geologic faults . The last known great earthquake in the northwest was

6072-572: The Lewis and Clark Expedition to travel through the Midwest starting from St. Louis , cross the Continental Divide and reach the Columbia River up to its mouth. Americans reached the Pacific Ocean "overland" in 1805. The Pacific Fur Company sent in 1811 an "over-lander" crew including a large contingent of Voyageurs to retrace most of the path of the earlier expedition up to the mouth of

6210-746: The Metro Vancouver Regional District ), the Seattle metropolitan area , and the Portland metropolitan area totaled more than nine million people. However, beyond these three cities, the PNW region is characterized by a very low density population distribution. Some other regions of greater population density outside this corridor include the Greater Victoria area and Greater Nanaimo area on Southern Vancouver Island (with

6348-607: The Nootka Crisis , which was resolved by agreements known as the Nootka Convention . In 1790, the Spanish sent three ships to Nootka Sound, under the command of Francisco de Eliza . After establishing a base at Nootka, Eliza sent out several exploration parties. Salvador Fidalgo was sent north to the Alaska coast. Manuel Quimper , with Gonzalo López de Haro as pilot, explored the Strait of Juan de Fuca, discovering

6486-478: The Nootka Sound Conventions , the last in 1794, Spain gave up its exclusive a priori claims and agreed to share the region with the other powers , giving up its garrison at Nootka Sound in the process. The United States established a claim based on the discoveries of Robert Gray , the Lewis and Clark Expedition , the construction of Fort Astoria, and the acquisition of Spanish claims given to

6624-758: The North West Company (NWC). During the 1820s, the upper Willamette, the Umpqua , the Rogue , the Klamath were all reached still heading southward up toward the Sacramento River and California under the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) having now itself acquired the NWC. The Siskiyou Trail was gradually being established by Alexander Roderick McLeod and Peter Skene Ogden leading related expeditions for

6762-419: The North West Company , the Pacific Fur Company or the Hudson's Bay Company include: Fort Saint-James (1806; oldest in British Columbia west of the Rockies), Fort Astoria (1811; oldest in Oregon), Fort Nez Percés (1818), Fort Alexandria (1821), Fort Vancouver (1824), Fort Langley (1827; oldest in southern British Columbia), Fort Nisqually (1833), and Fort Victoria (1843). Also of interest are

6900-431: The Northwest Territories of Canada . The region is sometimes referred to as Cascadia, which, depending on the borders, may or may not be the same thing as the Pacific Northwest. The region's largest metropolitan areas are Greater Seattle , Washington, with 4 million people; Metro Vancouver , British Columbia, with 2.84 million people; and Greater Portland , Oregon, with 2.5 million people. The culture of

7038-467: The Olympic Peninsula near the mouth of the Quinault River . On August 17, 1775, Heceta, returning south, sighted the mouth of the Columbia River and named it Bahia de la Asunción . While Heceta sailed south, Quadra continued north in the expedition's second ship, Sonora , reaching Alaska , at 59° N . In 1778 English mariner Captain James Cook visited Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island and also voyaged as far as Prince William Sound . In 1779,

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7176-404: The Oregon Coast , Burrard Inlet , Puget Sound , and the highly complex fjords of the British Columbia Coast and Southeast Alaska . The region has one of the world's longest fjord coastlines. The Pacific Northwest contains an uncountable number of islands, many of the smaller ones being unnamed. The vast majority of such islands are in British Columbia and Alaska. Vancouver Island is by far

7314-404: The Oregon Territory in 1848. It was later subdivided into Oregon Territory and Washington Territory . These territories became the states of Oregon, Idaho, Washington and parts of other Western states. During the American Civil War , British Columbia officials pushed for London to invade and conquer the Washington Territory in effort to take advantage of Americans being distracted in the war on

7452-452: The Pacific Ocean . Simon Fraser explored and mapped the Fraser River from Central British Columbia down to its mouth in 1808. And mapmaker David Thompson explored in 1811 the entire route of the Columbia River from its northern headwaters all the way to its mouth. These explorations were commissioned by the North West Company and were all undertaken with small teams of Voyageurs . United States President Thomas Jefferson commissioned

7590-407: The Puget Sound region . The darkness is enhanced by a return from dry summers to extremely cloudy and wet weather characterized by recurring atmospheric rivers and Pacific Northwest windstorms . Much of the Pacific Northwest is forested. The Georgia Strait – Puget Sound basin is shared between western British Columbia and Washington, and the Pacific temperate rain forests ecoregion, which

7728-422: The San Juan and Gulf Island chains. The major cities of Vancouver, Portland , Seattle , and Tacoma all began as seaports supporting the logging, mining, and farming industries of the region, but have developed into major technological and industrial centers (such as the Silicon Forest ), which benefit from their location on the Pacific Rim . If defined as British Columbia, Idaho, Oregon and Washington,

7866-559: The San Juan Islands and Admiralty Inlet in the process. Francisco de Eliza himself took the ship San Carlos into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. From a base at Port Discovery , his pilotos ( masters ) José María Narváez and Juan Carrasco explored the San Juan Islands , Haro Strait , Rosario Strait , and Bellingham Bay . In the process, they discovered the Strait of Georgia and explored it as far north as Texada Island . The expedition returned to Nootka Sound by August 1791. Alessandro Malaspina , sailing for Spain, explored and mapped

8004-485: The tallest trees on earth, the coast redwoods , in southwestern Oregon, but the largest of these trees are located just south of the California border in northwestern California. Coastal forests in some areas are classified as temperate rainforest . Coastal features are defined by the interaction with the Pacific and the North American continent. The coastline of the Pacific Northwest is dotted by numerous fjords, bays, islands, and mountains. Some of these features include

8142-401: The 1870s and the 1880s, though no cross-border attacks were experienced. During the Alaska Boundary Dispute , U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt threatened to invade and annex British Columbia if Britain would not yield on the question of the Yukon ports. In more recent times, during the so-called " Salmon War " of the 1990s, Washington Senator Slade Gorton called for the U.S. Navy to "force"

8280-468: The 1957 hunting season, several times as many as expected; the excess was a logistical nightmare. One hunter was accidentally shot and died. A second hunter drowned in the Hoh River. A pack horse was shot. The Hoh River flooded, stranding hunters and washing away their camps. Forest Service and State Game personnel were overwhelmed with rescue efforts (lost, stranded, or injured hunters) and dispute resolution. Over 800 elk were killed, some left lying in

8418-436: The Bogachiel and Sol Duc forming the Quillayute River within 5 miles (8.0 km) of tidewater), Lyre , Elwha , Dungeness (all flowing north into the Strait of Juan de Fuca ), Big Quilcene , Dosewallips , Duckabush , Hamma Hamma , and Skokomish (all flowing east into Hood Canal ). Principal summits: Other summits: A large portion of the range is contained within the Olympic National Park. Of this portion, 95%

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8556-425: The Columbia and join the company ship. The Tonquin came oversea via Cape Horn to build and operate Fort Astoria . These early land expeditions mapped the way for subsequent land explorations and building early settlements. The Willamette River was the first PNW inland waterway to be explored north–south during trapping expeditions carried out throughout the 1810s by the Pacific Fur Company soon acquired by

8694-445: The Columbia. Noteworthy Russian settlements still in place include: Unalaska (1774), Kodiak (1791), and Sitka (1804) making them the oldest permanent non-Indigenous settlements in the Pacific Northwest. Temporary Spanish settlement Santa Cruz de Nuca (1789–1795) held on a few years at Nootka Sound . Other early occupation non-Indigenous settlements of interest, either long lasting or still in place, built and operated by either

8832-463: The Eastern region. This was rejected, as the UK did not wish to risk war with the United States, whose forces were better prepared and trained much more than the British troops. American expansionist pressure on British Columbia persisted after the colony became a province of Canada, even though Americans living in the province did not harbor annexationist inclinations. The Fenian Brotherhood openly organized and drilled in Washington, particularly in

8970-450: The European population contains large communities of English Canadians , Scottish Canadians , Irish Canadians , French Canadians , German Canadians , and many others. Europeans form between 80 and 90 per cent of the population in U.S. section of the Pacific Northwest, thus the Asian presence is comparably smaller, with all Asian groups together comprising about 8% of Washington state's population, and less than 4% in Oregon and Idaho. This

9108-421: The HBC. Also during the 1820s, HBC explorations were carried out northward originating from the Columbia River Fort Astoria long renamed to Fort George. Simon Plamondon first ventured during the early 20s into the Cowlitz River up to Cowlitz Prairie . By 1824, an expedition led by James McMillan was reaching Puget Sound via the Chehalis River (Washington) and a portage. The same expedition went on all

9246-467: The Hoh, Queets, and Quinault rivers are typical U-shaped valleys carved by advancing alpine glaciers. Piles of talus and rockfall were created by retreating alpine glaciers. In the high mountains, the major rivers have their headwaters in alpine glacially carved cirques . During the Orting, followed by the Stuck, the Salmon Springs, and the Fraser glaciations, the vast continental Cordilleran Ice Sheet descended from Alaska south through British Columbia to

9384-405: The Northwest Coast, they found one of the world's most complex hunting and fishing societies, with large sedentary villages, large houses, systems of social rank and prestige, extensive trade networks, and many other factors more commonly associated with societies based on domesticated agriculture. In the interior of the Pacific Northwest, the indigenous peoples, at the time of European contact, had

9522-443: The Olympic Mountains are the fisher ( Martes pennanti ) and the gray wolf ( Canis lupus ). The fisher was declared extirpated from Washington State when no fishers were detected during statewide carnivore surveys in the 1990s and 2000s. A reintroduction project was initiated in 2007, in partnership with Olympic National Park. The gray wolf was extirpated from Washington State in the early 20th century. The last wolf documented in

9660-426: The Olympic peninsula, along with the largest preserve of temperate old-growth forest, live in the national park. Spotted owls prey on flying squirrels and snowshoe hares, and are themselves preyed on by great horned owls Bubo virginianus . The density of the canopy of an old-growth forest gives the spotted owls some protection from the larger, less agile great horned owls. Rufous hummingbird ( Selasphorus rufus )

9798-425: The Olympics as well as other parts of a limited range, include the Cope's giant salamander ( Dicamptodon copei ), and the Van Dyke's salamander ( Plethodon vandykei ,) both found primarily in the Olympics and other mountainous areas of western Washington; the tailed frog ( Ascaphus truei ), of Pacific Northwest mountain streams, and the mountain beaver ( Aplodontia rufa ) of the coastal Pacific Northwest. For

9936-610: The Olympics creates permanent snow and ice at lower elevations than is typical for other mountain ranges, cutting off the alpine vegetation zone. Most of the alpine vegetation is on the rain shadow side, in the northeastern Olympics, where there is less permanent snow and ice. Alpine vegetation is low herbaceous, typified by Phlox diffusa and species of Carex . Many of the Olympic Mountain's endemic plants occur here, such as Piper's bellflower ( Campanula piperi ) and Olympic violet ( Viola flettii ). Mammals extirpated from

10074-566: The Olympics was trapped in 1920. In the early 21st century, wolves are naturally migrating back into eastern and north-central Washington State, but there is no evidence of wolf migration into the Olympics and no plan to trans-locate wolves to the Olympics. The gray wolf is listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the fisher is listed as state endangered by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission. Previous to

10212-509: The Olympics. The ice split into the Juan de Fuca and Puget ice lobes, as they encountered the resistant Olympic Mountains, carving out the current waterways and advanced as far south as present day Olympia. Ice flowed up the river valleys as far as 3,800 feet (1,200 m), carrying granitic glacial erratics with it. The mountains support a variety of different ecosystems, varying by elevation and relative east–west location, which influences

10350-527: The Pacific Northwest are temperate; cool temperatures and frequent cloudy skies are typical. Under the Köppen climate classification , a warm-summer Mediterranean ( Csb ) designation is assigned to many areas of the Pacific Northwest as far north as central Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands , including cities such as Victoria , Vancouver (coast area), Seattle, and Portland. Other climate classification systems, such as Trewartha , place these areas in

10488-600: The Pacific Northwest has four US National Parks : Crater Lake in Oregon, and Olympic , Mount Rainier , and North Cascades in Washington. If a larger regional definition is used, then other US National Parks might be included, such as Redwood National and State Parks , Glacier Bay National Park , Wrangell–St. Elias National Park , Grand Teton National Park , and parts of Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park . There are several Canadian National Parks in

10626-591: The Pacific Northwest is influenced by the Canada–United States border , which the United States and the United Kingdom established at a time when the region's inhabitants were composed mostly of indigenous peoples . Two sections of the border—one along the 49th parallel south of British Columbia and one between the Alaska Panhandle and northern British Columbia—have left a great impact on

10764-671: The Pacific Northwest, including Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Mount Revelstoke National Park and Glacier National Park in the Selkirk Range alongside Rogers Pass , Kootenay National Park and Yoho National Park on the British Columbia flank of the Rockies, Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve in Haida Gwaii, and the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve in

10902-581: The Pacific Northwest, thousands of indigenous people live, and some continue to practice their rich cultural traditions, "organizing their societies around cedar and salmon". In 1579, the British captain and erstwhile privateer Francis Drake sailed up the west coast of North America perhaps as far as Oregon before returning south to land and make ship repairs. On 5 June 1579, the ship briefly made first landfall at South Cove, Cape Arago, just south of Coos Bay, Oregon , and then sailed south while searching for

11040-533: The Pacific coast from the Russian River to Vancouver Island . Olympic and Vancouver Island elk are some of the last pure Roosevelt elk herds left; those in the Cascades have mixed with Rocky Mountain elk . Olympic National Park has the largest population of Roosevelt elk in the world. Some herds spend winter in lowland valleys, summer in high country, in subalpine meadows. Other herds live year-round in lowland forests and meadows. Elk prefer more humid areas,

11178-572: The Press and O'Neil expeditions were impressed by the quantity and tameness of the elk. Both expedition leaders prohibited shooting the elk and deer except when the expedition was in need of meat. The Olympic National Monument was formed to protect the elk after the herds were reduced to less than 2000 animals. The population rebounded, and in 1937 a hunting season for elk was opened in the Hoh River valley. An estimated 2,000–4,000 hunters came for

11316-401: The Sitka spruce, wet western hemlock, and mountain hemlock zones. Elk browsing is believed to be responsible for the open park-like structure of the Olympic rainforests; the elk graze on hemlock and shrubs, leaving the Sitka spruce to grow. Elk browsing also increases diversity of grasses and forbs. Elk exclosure experiments in rainforest valleys show more species of vegetation growing outside

11454-423: The Spanish settlement and Fort San Miguel . Quadra sent Caamaño north, to carefully explore the coast between Vancouver Island and Bucareli Bay , Alaska. Various Spanish maps, including Caamaño's, were given to George Vancouver in 1792, as the Spanish and British worked together to chart the complex coastline. From 1792 to 1794, George Vancouver charted the Pacific Northwest on behalf of Great Britain, including

11592-540: The State Game Commission. Mountain goats in the Olympics have been associated with damage to alpine vegetation and soil erosion. The goats have also been aggressive towards park visitors. In 1999, a mountain goat gored a hiker at the summit of Mount Ellinor in Olympic National Forest, and in 2010, a mountain goat fatally gored a hiker on the Klahane Ridge trail in Olympic National Park. In 2012,

11730-601: The Strait of Georgia, the bays and inlets of Puget Sound , and the Johnstone Strait – Queen Charlotte Strait and much of the rest of the British Columbia Coast and southeast Alaska shorelines. For him the city of Vancouver and Vancouver Island are named, as well as Vancouver, Washington . From Mexico, Malaspina dispatched the last Spanish exploration expedition in the Pacific Northwest, under Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayentano Valdes aboard

11868-484: The Strait of Georgia. There are numerous protected areas in British Columbia and in the United States . Other outstanding natural features include the Columbia River Gorge , Fraser Canyon , Mount St. Helens , Malaspina Glacier , and Hells Canyon . The south-central Coast Mountains in British Columbia contain the five largest mid-latitude icefields in the world. The main general climatic types of

12006-716: The US, this region is known as the Columbia Plateau , while in British Columbia, it is the Interior Plateau , also called the Fraser Plateau . The Columbia Plateau was the scene of massive ice-age floods, and as a consequence, there are many coulees , canyons, and the Channeled Scablands . Much of the plateau, especially in eastern Washington, is irrigated farmland . The Columbia River cuts

12144-640: The United States in the Adams–Onís Treaty . From the 1810s until the 1840s, modern-day Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana, along with most of British Columbia, were part of what the United States called the Oregon Country and Britain called the Columbia District . This region was jointly claimed by the United States and Great Britain after the Treaty of 1818 , which established

12282-611: The Vancouver Island/North Cascades corner pushes Olympic rock upward and southwestward, resulting in strata that appear to be standing on edge and that intermix with strata of different mineral composition. All this occurred under water; the Olympics began to rise above the sea only 10–20 million years ago. The Olympics were shaped in the Pleistocene era by both alpine and continental glaciers advancing and retreating multiple times. The valleys of

12420-499: The area is dominated by Douglas-fir . The reason for this is that Douglas-fir is an early seral species, and reproduces primarily after disturbances such as fire, logging, landslides, and windstorms. Western hemlock does not reproduce well on disturbed, exposed soil but germinates under the canopy of Douglas-fir, eventually overtaking the forest by shading out the Douglas-fir, which cannot reproduce in shade. In this zone, despite

12558-592: The bald eagle more so along the coast than in the mountains. Olympic rivers are dominated by Pacific salmonids , the Oncorhynchus . Chinook, coho, pink, rainbow and steelhead, and cutthroat all spawn in Olympic rivers. Chum and sockeye also live in coastal Olympic peninsula rivers but do not reach into the mountains. Bull trout ( Salvelinus confluentus ) and Dolly Varden trout ( S. malma ) also live in Olympic rivers. There are at least 16  endemic animal species. Near-endemics, those that occur in

12696-579: The border disputes (see Pig War ). The mainland territory north of the 49th parallel remained unincorporated until 1858, when a mass influx of Americans and others during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush forced the hand of Colony of Vancouver Island 's Governor James Douglas , who declared the mainland a Crown colony . The two colonies were amalgamated in 1866 to cut costs, and joined the Dominion of Canada in 1871. The U.S. portion became

12834-503: The coast from Yakutat Bay to Prince William Sound in 1791, then sailed to Nootka Sound. Performing a scientific expedition in the manner of James Cook, Malaspina's scientists studied the Tlingit and Nuu-chah-nulth peoples before returning to Mexico. Another Spanish explorer, Jacinto Caamaño , sailed the ship Aranzazu to Nootka Sound in May 1792. There he met Quadra, who was in command of

12972-849: The coastal areas west of the Cascade and Coast mountains. The Northwest Coast is the coastal region of the Pacific Northwest, and the Northwest Plateau (also commonly known as " the Interior " in British Columbia), is the inland region. The term "Pacific Northwest" should not be confused with the Northwest Territory (also known as the Great Northwest, a historical term in the United States) or

13110-576: The coastal migration hypothesis is still subject to considerable debate. Due in part to the richness of Pacific Northwest Coast and river fisheries, some of the indigenous peoples developed complex sedentary societies, while remaining hunter-gatherers . The Pacific Northwest Coast is one of the few places where politically complex hunter-gatherers evolved and survived to historic contacts, and therefore has been vital for anthropologists and archaeologists seeking to understand how complex hunter and gatherer societies function. When Europeans first arrived on

13248-644: The drainage pattern is radial. Rivers radiate outwards to all sides. Clockwise from windward to leeward, the major watersheds are: Satsop , Wynoochee , Humptulips , Quinault , Queets , Hoh , Bogachiel , Sol Duc (all flowing west into the Pacific Ocean; with the Satsop, Wynoochee by way of the Chehalis River , the Humptulips by way of Grays Harbor at the mouth of the Chehalis River, and

13386-587: The driest northeastern portion of the mountains. The Olympics are made up of obducted clastic wedge material and oceanic crust. They are primarily Eocene sandstones, turbidites , and basaltic oceanic crust. Unlike the Cascades , the Olympic Mountains are not volcanic, and contain no native granite. Millions of years ago, vents and fissures opened under the Pacific Ocean and lava flowed forth, creating huge underwater volcanic mountains and ranges called seamounts . The Farallon tectonic plate that formed

13524-427: The dry western hemlock, Douglas-fir, and subalpine fir zones. Similar to the elk, blacktail deer winter in lowlands, or along south-facing ridges, and summer in the high country meadows. Mountain beaver ( Aplodontia rufa ) is a large primitive rodent endemic to the Pacific Northwest. They are common in the Olympics, preferring wet scrubby thickets and second growth timber. Banana slug ( Ariolimax columbianus )

13662-527: The entire Oregon Country and of Texas. After his election, supporters coined the famous slogan "Fifty-four Forty or Fight", referring to 54°40′ north latitude —the northward limit of the United States' claim. After a war scare with the United Kingdom, the Oregon boundary dispute was settled in the 1846 Oregon Treaty , partitioning the region along the 49th parallel and resolving most, but not all, of

13800-457: The exclosures, where elk browse, than inside; while there are more brush and saplings inside exclosures, there are more grasses and forbs outside. Elk browsing improves forage for other herbivores like deer, voles and snowshoe hares. Elk prefer old growth forest and young alder groves over the large, even-aged plantations common on commercial timber land, although they will use small, recent clearcuts where they mimic natural forest openings. Both

13938-569: The extirpation of the gray wolf, coyotes ( Canis latrans ) occurred in the lowlands of the Olympic peninsula but not in the mountains. With the absence of wolves, coyotes have been moving up into the higher elevations of the mountains and may be responsible for population declines in the Olympic marmot . American black bear ( Ursus americanus ) are numerous in the Olympics. Olympic bears eat salmon, rodents, huckleberries, tree bark, insects, and deer or elk carcasses. Cougar ( Felis concolor )

14076-679: The first mixed ancestry settlements sometimes referred as Métis settlements or French Canadian settlements. Native and newly arrived "half-breeds" (born out of "Europeans" and Indigenous alliances), local and newly arrived Indigenous people as well as "French Canadians" all issued of the fur trade were all able to peacefully coexist. Small scale farming occurred. Catholic missions and churches thrived for many years. These first settlements were: French Prairie , Frenchtown near Walla Walla, Cowlitz Prairie (Washington), French Settlement (Oregon) and Frenchtown near Missoula. Most mixed ancestry people ended up resettled in or around Indigenous reserves during

14214-445: The forest. Proponents of a national park used the 1937 elk hunt as an argument in favor of permanent protection for Olympic's elk herds. Not all the elk herds are protected inside the national park: Some migrate in and out of the park, and others live entirely outside the park. All elk are subject to regulated hunting when outside the national park. Blacktail deer ( Odocoileus hemionus columbianus ) prefer drier areas than elk, such as

14352-510: The form of snowfall. Because of maritime influence , snow tends to be wet and heavy, resulting in high avalanche danger. During winter months weather is usually cloudy, but due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is often little or no cloud cover during the summer. From the end of the Hurricane Ridge Road, a 1.6-mile trail leads to the top of Hurricane Hill. This paved trail

14490-574: The future Olympics were being jammed into a corner created by the Vancouver Island and North Cascades microcontinents attached to the western edge of the North America plate. This is thought to be the origin of the curved shape of the Olympic Basaltic Horseshoe, an arc of submarine basalt running east along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, south along Hood Canal, and then west to Lake Quinault. Thrust-faulting northeast into

14628-584: The general labor force west of the Cascades. Despite the Second Great Migration from the 1940s to 1960s due to the booming Boeing war industry and post-war growing economy, African Americans are less numerous in the Pacific Northwest; however, the overall African American population has been growing in other smaller urban areas throughout the region such as Eugene. African Americans tend to concentrate in western urban areas such as Tacoma, south Seattle, and Portland. Nonetheless, Black people have

14766-466: The high annual precipitation, drought stress in summer is sufficiently severe to limit growth of many species, such as Sitka spruce. Hardwoods such as bigleaf maple, willows, and red alder are limited to disturbed sites and riparian areas. red-cedar grows in the wettest sites. A very small area of the northeastern rain shadow contains the limited Douglas-fir zone, where it is too dry for western hemlock. Moving up in elevation and moisture availability

14904-403: The high country to hunt elk, gather huckleberries and beargrass, and perform spirit quests. Trails across the mountains allowed members of the various tribes to visit and trade with each other. The cross-Olympic expeditions of the 1890s found tree blazes that they took to mark Indian trails. Archeological evidence shows that the Olympic Mountains were inhabited by Paleolithic hunters after

15042-477: The hot season is associated with high atmospheric pressure . The shadows of the mountains also greatly decrease the amount of precipitation. West of the Cascades , the marine climates have a much greater precipitation than the west coast of Europe due to orographic lift , with some regions seeing as much as 3,500 mm (138 in) of precipitation per year. Winters are very mild for the region's latitude. The growth of Arbutus , an evergreen broad-leafed tree,

15180-494: The island. In 1786, Jean-François de La Pérouse , representing France, sailed to Haida Gwaii after visiting Nootka Sound, but any possible French claims to this region were lost when La Pérouse and his men and journals were lost in a shipwreck near Australia. Upon encountering the Salish coastal tribes, either Pérouse or someone in his crew remarked, "What must astonish most is to see painting everywhere, everywhere sculpture, among

15318-481: The largest island in the area, but other significant land masses include the Haida Gwaii , vast and remote Princess Royal Island , Prince of Wales Island and Chichagof Island . The Salish Sea located close to major populated areas contains smaller but more frequently visited and well known islands. These include Whidbey Island , Salt Spring Island , and Texada Island , along with dozens of smaller islands in

15456-422: The local climate, primarily precipitation. Olympic forests are coniferous forests, unique among mesic temperate forests in their almost complete dominance by conifers rather than by hardwoods. The hardwood:conifer timber volume ratio is 1:1,000 in the maritime Pacific Northwest. Another unique feature of Olympic forests is the size and longevity of the dominant tree species. Every coniferous genus represented here

15594-529: The low herbaceous meadows of pumice, talus and scree slopes and other rocky areas. American saw-wort is common in both mountain meadows and lower subalpine parklands in the Olympics. Above timberline is the Alpine zone, not a forest zone since no trees can grow this high. The alpine zone in the Olympics is much more limited in size than in other temperate mountain ranges, from 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) to 2,250 metres (7,380 ft). The high precipitation of

15732-730: The mountains were used based on the name Mount Olympus, including the Olympic Range, the Olympian Mountains, and the Olympus Range. Alternate proposals never caught on, and in 1864 the Seattle Weekly Gazette persuaded the government to make the present-day name official, although other names continued to be used. Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest ( PNW ; French : Nord-Ouest Pacifique ), sometimes referred to as Cascadia ,

15870-515: The north side, the Little River Trail climbs 4,700 feet over seven miles before intersecting with the paved Hurricane Hill trail. The summit offers views of the Bailey Range , Mount Olympus , Victoria on Vancouver Island across the Strait of Juan de Fuca , and on clear days one can see Mount Baker 95 miles distant. Hurricane Hill is considered one of the best wildflower hikes in Washington state with over 125 species of plants, with

16008-537: The oceanic zone ( Do ). An Alpine climate dominates in the high mountains. Semi-arid and arid climates are found east of the higher mountains, especially in rainshadow areas. The Harney Basin of Oregon is an example of arid climate in the Pacific Northwest. Humid continental climates occur inland on windward sides, in places such as Revelstoke, British Columbia . A subarctic climate can be found farther north, especially in Yukon and Alaska. The lack of rain in

16146-748: The original inhabitants of the Olympic Peninsula, the highest peaks of the mountains were the only refuges during the Great Floods at the beginning of time. For the Elwha Klallam people, that peak was Mount Carrie; for the Skokomish, it was a peak west of Mount Ellinor. The Thunderbird figure of the Hoh tribe lived on Mount Olympus, in a den under Blue Glacier. People in the Skokomish, Quinault, and Elwha watersheds regularly traveled into

16284-454: The peak time for wildflowers in July and August. Hurricane Hill hosts lupine , mountain pasqueflower , mountain dandelion , rosy pussytoes , nodding arnica , Olympic Mountain aster , western mugwort , common harebell , paintprush , mountain larkspur and rockslide larkspur . Old-growth forests of Douglas fir , western hemlock , and western redcedar grow on the lower slopes surrounding

16422-457: The peak. Deer, grouse , chipmunks, and marmots may be encountered on the meadow slopes. Colonies of the Olympic marmot are found only in the Olympic Mountains and nowhere else in the world, but their population has declined due to non-native coyote predation. However, they continue to thrive on Hurricane Hill which makes it the best place to see and photograph them. Olympic Mountains#Press Expedition 1889–1890 The Olympic Mountains are

16560-431: The presence of extensive mountains and forests, and plateaus containing both extensive farm and range lands, much of which is protected from development in large parks and preserves, or by zoning use regulation related to traditional land use. For example, all cities within the portion of California which are sometimes included some definitions of the "Pacific Northwest" have populations less than 100,000, with that portion of

16698-606: The rain shadow around Port Townsend, the San Juan Islands, and the city of Everett across Puget Sound. 80% of precipitation falls during the winter months. On the coastal plain, the winter temperature stays between −2 and 7 °C (28 and 45 °F). During the summer it warms up to between 10 and 24 °C (50 and 75 °F), with occasional hot spell days reaching to the upper 80s to low 90s °F (30-35 °C). The large number of snowfields and glaciers , reaching down to 1,500 m (5,000 ft) above sea level, are

16836-416: The range, from the wet western slopes to the semi-arid eastern ridges. Mount Olympus, nearly 8,000 feet (2,400 m) tall, is a mere 35 miles (56 km) from the Pacific Ocean, one of the steepest reliefs globally and accounting for the high precipitation of the area, with an estimated 240 inches (6,100 mm) of snow and rain on Mount Olympus. 140 to 170 inches (3,600 to 4,300 mm) of rain falls on

16974-490: The region. According to Canadian historian Ken Coates , the border has not merely influenced the Pacific Northwest—rather, "the region's history and character have been determined by the boundary". Definitions of the "Pacific Northwest" region vary, and even Pacific Northwesterners do not agree on the exact boundary. The most common conception includes the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and sometimes

17112-491: The report that the sediments in the Port Eliza Cave on Vancouver Island indicate the possibility of survivable climate as far back as 16 kya (16,000 years ago) in the area, while the continental ice sheets were nearing their maximum extent. Other evidence for human occupation dating back as much as 14.5 kya (14,500 years ago) is emerging from Paisley Caves in south-central Oregon. However, despite such research,

17250-618: The retreat of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet . Stone tools in the Deer Park area date to 7600 years ago, prior to the volcanic eruption of Mount Mazama . Similar tools have been found near Lake Cushman and throughout the Olympic subalpine meadows and ridges, as well as in coastal areas. In addition, a fragment of a woven basket found in the Olympic subalpine of Obstruction Point was radiocarbon dated to nearly 3000 years ago. The mountains were originally called " Sun-a-do " by

17388-536: The schooners Sutil and Mexicana . They met Vancouver in the Strait of Georgia on June 21, 1792. Vancouver had explored Puget Sound just previously. The Spanish explorers knew of Admiralty Inlet and the unexplored region to the south, but they decided to sail north. They discovered and entered the Fraser River shortly before meeting Vancouver. After sharing maps and agreeing to cooperate, Galiano, Valdés, and Vancouver sailed north to Desolation Sound and

17526-441: The slide alder chutes and the silver fir forest. The next higher forest zone is the mountain hemlock zone, the highest forest zone in the Olympic mountains. In this zone most precipitation falls as snow and the snow-free growing season is very short. In the drier rainshadow side of the mountains, mountain hemlock is largely replaced by subalpine fir . At the higher elevations of the mountain hemlock/subalpine fir zone, tree cover

17664-516: The state containing millions of acres of national forests and parks. In British Columbia, Europeans form 64% of the population with Asians comprising a further 29% of the provincial population. Both the Asian and European populations of the province are diverse; of the Asian population, 15% of the population is of East Asian descent, 8% of the population is of South Asian descent, with smaller numbers of Southeast Asians (4%) and West Asians (2%);

17802-486: The subalpine zone is dominated by subalpine fir. It can occur with other trees, including mountain hemlock, silver fir, and yellow-cedar, but what characterizes these zones is the dominance of subalpine fir. These forests occur on the eastern ridges from 1,300 to 1,800 metres (4,300 to 5,900 ft). In the Olympics, the treeline is between 5,000 feet (1,500 m) and 6,000 feet (1,800 m) but can be as low as under 4,000 feet (1,200 m) in some places. Treeline

17940-697: The subsequent period, or otherwise assimilating in the mainstream. Initial formal claims to the region were asserted by Spain in 1513 with explorer Nuñez de Balboa , the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean from the Americas. Russian maritime fur trade activity, through the Russian-American Company , extended from the farther side of the Pacific to Russian America . This prompted Spain to send expeditions north to assert Spanish ownership, while Captain James Cook and subsequent expeditions by George Vancouver advanced British claims. As of

18078-591: The trail to Mount Ellinor was closed in summer due to aggressive goats, re-opening in the fall. An airlifting effort by the National Park Service started in September 2018 in an attempt to relocate the goats to the Cascades region. NPS hopes to relocate several hundred goats before starting a lethal removal option. The park service hopes to reduce the goat population to 0-50 animals by 2028. Roosevelt elk Cervus canadensis roosevelti range along

18216-689: The way to Boundary Bay and reached the Fraser River via the Nicomekl and the Salmon linked via a portage. The lower Fraser was revisited 16 years after explorer Simon Fraser (NWC) had first reached its mouth, although originating from northern present-day British Columbia . Puget Sound soon after would get reached via the Cowlitz and the Cowlitz Landing portage, but originating from new HBC headquarter Fort Vancouver located closer by, north of

18354-404: The western coastal plain and not in mountainous areas, although it can be found as high as 1,900 feet (580 m). The lower elevations of the Olympic mountains, from roughly 480 feet (150 m) up to 1,800 feet (550 m) – 3,700 feet (1,100 m), feature the western hemlock zone, so-called because in most of the zone, the climax tree species would be western hemlock, even though much of

18492-503: The wettest place in the 48 contiguous states. Most of the mountains are protected within the bounds of Olympic National Park and adjoining segments of the Olympic National Forest . The mountains are located in western Washington in the United States, spread out across four counties: Clallam , Grays Harbor , Jefferson and Mason . Physiographically, they are a section of the larger Pacific Border province , which

18630-401: The winter precipitation by continuing to photosynthesize through fall, winter and early spring, when deciduous trees are not able to photosynthesize. No deciduous conifers occur in the Olympics; larch trees occur in the much-drier eastern Cascades, but not in the Olympics or western Cascades. There is only one species of evergreen hardwood, the madrone . The great size and age of conifers here

18768-514: Was named after these settlements. In 1774, the viceroy of New Spain sent Spanish navigator Juan Pérez in the ship Santiago to the Pacific Northwest. Peréz made landfall on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) on July 18, 1774. The northernmost latitude he reached was 54°40′ N . This was followed, in 1775, by another Spanish expedition, under the command of Bruno de Heceta and including Juan Peréz and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra as officers. On July 14, 1775, they landed on

18906-512: Was named for him, but whether he discovered it or not has long been questioned. During the early 1740s, Imperial Russia sent the Danish-born Russian Vitus Bering to the region. By the late 18th century and into the mid-19th century, Russian settlers had established several posts and communities on the northeast Pacific coast, eventually reaching as far south as Fort Ross, California . The Russian River

19044-531: Was originally a Forest Service road built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps . The relatively easy and popular hike gains approximately 750 feet of elevation and is snow-free from late June to October. The trail was refurbished in 2020. In winter, Hurricane Hill becomes a favorite destination with snowshoers. There is also a six-mile trail on the west side which climbs up from the Elwha Valley and gains 5,100 feet of elevation. From

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