Olympic Peninsula

Geographical location

The Olympic Peninsula (English Olympic Peninsula ) is a peninsula in the northwest of the U.S. state of Washington. It is surrounded to the west by the Pacific Ocean, north of the Juan de Fuca Strait and the east by Puget Sound. In the south of the Chehalis River is considered as the boundary of the peninsula. On Puget Sound, opposite the peninsula is Seattle, the largest city in the region, in southeast Olympia, Washington, the capital of the state.

The geography of the peninsula is dominated by the long coastline and the mountains Olympic Mountains with Mount Olympus ( 2428m ) the highest point. In the massif are numerous rivers and lakes.

There are the remains of the once prevailing temperate rain forest on the slopes of the Olympic Mountains. The two largest holdings are Hoh Rain Forest and Quinault Rain Forest. About half of the peninsula is designated as Olympic National Park. It consists of the core of the Olympic Mountains along with the rain forests and a narrow strip of natural Pacific Coast. The whole coast is also protected as Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

Other protected areas in the peninsula include the Olympic National Forest Wilderness Areas with multiple as well as a number of smaller parks of the state: Anderson Lake, Bogachiel, Dosewallips, Fort Flagler, Fort Worden and Fort Townsend.

U.S. Highway 101 encircles almost the whole of the eastern, northern and western coast. Are the reserves of the Makah and the Quinault Indians on the west coast. The Tatoosh Island Iceland is the westernmost point of the contiguous territory of the United States of America, and is named after a Makah chief.

At the peninsula 's Naval Base Kitsap.

Due to the small hours of sunlight the area around the park was chosen by the author Stephenie Meyer as a framework for their vampire saga "Twilight".