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olympic
national
park
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P E A K S & VA L L E Y S
OLYMPIC PENINSULA,
WASHINGTON
The U.S. National Park Service has called this
picturesque expanse “three parks in one.” Only
three? Someone needs to recount, because few
areas in North America are quite as varied. Land-
scape proliferates, from the wild beaches at the
park’s fringes, through vast tracts of old-growth
rain forest dense with mossy undergrowth and
fast-flowing streams, to the alpine meadows and
deep-cut valleys that herald the glaciers at the
park’s jagged, mountainous heart.
DON’T MISS
Few roads penetrate the park’s mountainous interior, but
Hurricane Ridge ofers accessible alpine and Nordic skiing,
along with superb views of the surrounds.
Deer graze (above) on sloping fields at Hurricane Ridge in
Olympic National Park; a bunchberry flower (left) nestles
among ferns.