• 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.

Historic Range in the Elwha - Chum Salmon

Historic Range:
Although chum salmon (or dog salmon) are great swimmers, they are the poorest jumpers of all the Elwha River salmon. They most likely swam as far as Rica Canyon at river mile 16, though the historical upstream distribution is unknown. The rapids here were likely impassable to both chum and pink salmon.

Diagram:
— The red line on the chart represents the known range of chum salmon before the dams.
-- The dotted red line represents theoretical range of chum salmon. Though there is no historical evidence that they swam past mile 16, it is feasible that they had the ability to go this far at certain times when river conditions permitted easier passage.

 
Historic chum
Historic range of Chum salmon in the Elwha River.
 

Click here to learn more about chum salmon!

 
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This webpage was made possible in part by a grant from Washington's National Park Fund.

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