The stunning OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK - covering much of the peninsula's mountainous interior and a detached 57-mile strip of the Pacific coast - was created in 1938 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, partly to ensure the survival of the rare Roosevelt elk; it now has the largest remaining herd in the US. More than two hundred miles of wild rivers wind through the park, while the valleys of the Quinault, Queets and Hoh rivers contain sizeable tracts of temperate rainforest - one of the world's rarest types of climatic forest, seen elsewhere only in Patagonia and New Zealand.

The main visitors center , just outside Port Angeles at 600 East Park Ave at the top of Race Street en route to Hurricane Ridge (daily 9am-4pm, summer closes at 8pm; tel 360/452-0330, ), has useful brochures and trail maps, with smaller centers located at Hurricane Ridge, Hoh Rainforest, Kalaloch and Quinault Lake . The weather is consistently erratic and often rainy - there's even a fair amount of snow as late as June. No roads cross the park, but many run into it, so you'll probably end up making several forays into different sections around the peninsula's western rim.

Olympic National Park

• Olympic National Park

Explore Olympic National Park

• Forks
• Hoh Rainforest
• Hurricane Ridge and Lake Crescent
• Lake Quinault and the Quinault Rainforest
• Queets River Rainforest
• South to Kalaloch: The peninsula's ocean beaches

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