• Olympic: Three Parks in One

    Olympic

    National Park Washington

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  • Olympic Hot Springs Road Closed

    The Elwha Valley's Olympic Hot Springs Road is closed to public entry beyond the Altair Campground during removal of the Glines Canyon Dam. Olympic Hot Springs is not accessible from the Elwha.

  • Elwha River Closures

    Boating is prohibited on the Elwha River between Upper Lake Mills Trail and Altair Campground.

  • Changes to Visitor Services Due to Sequestration

    Due to mandatory, across the board budget cuts, some visitor services at Olympic National Park have changed. See the Plan Your Visit section for more information.

Fish

Sockeye salmon

Sockeye Salmon

If rivers are the veins of Olympic National Park, then salmon are the blood coursing through them, delivering essential nutrients from the sea to freshwater and forest ecosystems. The park, with its abundant rainfall and snowy mountains, hundreds of lakes and streams, 10 major rivers and the Pacific Ocean, provides habitat for 37 species of native fish.

Unique Fish
Besides salmon that may travel thousands of miles during their lifetimes, the park also has freshwater fish that spend their whole lives isolated in their home lakes. The tiny Olympic mud minnow of lowland lakes is found nowhere else in the world. The Beardslee and Crescenti trout isolated in Lake Crescent are genetically distinct from their rainbow and cutthroat ancestors. Interested in fishing Olympic National Park waters? Check the park's current fishing regulations you go.

 

Click here to learn more about Olympic's anadromous fish populations and how and where to see them.

Did You Know?

Mossy downed log in dense forest

The old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest produce three times the biomass (living or once living material) of tropical rain forests. More...