Phantom Ship/Phantom Ship Overlook

Phantom Ship Overlook Nestled against the shore, Crater Lake’s “other island” escapes detection by many park visitors. Though it resembles a small sailboat, the island is as tall as a 16-story building. It’s made of erosion-resistant lava, 400,000 years old— ...

Rim Village/Rim Road

The unsurfaced 35-mile Rim Road was completed, with the exception of eight miles that required further widening and grading, and opened to the public on August 2, 1918. By an Act of Congress of July 19, 1919, the road engineering ...

Annie Spring/Lost Creek

The New Deal public works employment and funding agencies, in particular the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) and Public Works Administration (PWA), provided a large infusion of men and funds to the park to enable management to complete a significant portion ...

Lake Cushman

Lake Cushman borders the southeast corner of Olympic State park. In 1871, an Olympia newspaper claimed that rich iron ore deposits were found near Lake Cushman. Excitement about iron deposits in the Lake Cushman area renewed in 1888 and apparently ...

Kalaloch

For millennia, these beaches likely offered a safe landing place for ancestors of area tribes. For thousands of sea creatures, these waters are still a safe haven. It wasn't always like this however.Sea otters used to reside near the Kalaloch ...

Heart O’ The Hills

During the 1910s and 1920s, mountaineering and hiking clubs formed and made regular hiking expeditions into the Olympic Mountains. The Klahhane Club of Port Angeles formed in 1914, and each year an outing was planned to some point in the ...

Lake Crescent

Lake Crescent, at the northern extremity of the park, is one of the most beautiful mountain lakes in the United States. Glacial activity carved the basin of Lake Crescent to a depth of more than 600 feet in some places.

Located ...

Staircase Road

In 1890, Lieutenant Joseph P. O'Neil led the first exploratory expedition across the entire southern stretch of the Olympic Mountains. His group of soldiers and scientists surveyed the watersheds and peaks of nine rivers and their tributaries. They cut a ...

Sol Duc Area

A local Indian legend explains how Olympic and Sol Duc Hot Springs were created. There were two dragons. One lived in the Sol Duc Valley and the other lived in the Elwha Valley. One day they came face to face ...

Ozette Lake

A storm and serendipity unveiled one of the richest archeological sites in North America. In the mid-1960s, archeologists from Washington State University began excavating 12-foot thick deposits on the sheltered side of Cape Alava. Bone, shell and stone artifacts told ...