• Olympic: Three Parks in One

    Olympic

    National Park Washington

There are park alerts in effect.
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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.

Historic Range in the Elwha - Chinook Salmon

Historic Range:
Before the dams, Chinook salmon occupied the Elwha River to nearly the headwaters. They also spawned in several of the larger tributaries, including Little River, Goldie River, and Hayes River. This stock is part of the Puget Sound Chinook, which is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Very few, if any, spring-run Chinook remain in the Elwha. There are more summer/fall-run stocks that still exist by means of hatchery assistance, but they too are included in the federally threatened listing.

Diagram:
—The red line represents the historic range of the summer/fall-run Chinook in the Elwha River.
—The orange line represents the furthest extent of the spring-run chinook's historic range in the Elwha River.

 
Historic range of Chinook in the Elwha
Historic range of chinook in the Elwha River.
 
Click here to learn more about chinook salmon in Olympic National Park!

Did You Know?

Mt. Olympus in winter

That Mount Olympus receives over 200 inches of precipitation each year and most of that falls as snow? At 7,980 feet, Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Olympic National Park and has the third largest glacial system in the contiguous U.S.