Olympic is home to a cute and unique marmot. People often visit national parks to see wildlife in their natural habitat. Whether it is nuzzling, playing, chirping or feeding together, the Olympic marmot is quite possibly one of the most social and gregarious mammals in the park and a thrilling sight for nature lovers. Because the park sits on an isolated peninsula partially blocked by mountains, the Olympic marmot evolved separately and diverged from similar species in surrounding areas.
Keep on the lookout while hiking to catch a glimpse of these furry little creatures! Have fun in the sun or snow at Olympic! Olympic National Park has endless fun year-round with delightful winter and summer activities.
While snow tubing, snowboarding and alpine climbing are popular activities on Hurricane Ridge Road and the Olympic Mountains during winter, visitors can also relax in mineral pool baths at hot springs resorts during the summer season.
Another popular summer destination is the Salmon Cascades where park goers can watch spawning salmon leap over waterfalls. Olympic National Park has something for everyone to enjoy. Olympic Mountains in Olympic National Park. Photo by Jason Horstman www. Tidepool in Olympic National Park. Photo by National Park Service. Photo by Adam Jewell www.
Photo courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park. Wickersham's hope was realized on February 22, , when President Grover Cleveland issued a proclamation designating 13 new forest reserves, including the 2,,acre Olympic Forest Reserve.
A subsequent Geological Survey report estimated that the reserve held more than 60 billion board feet of timber, a volume "sufficient to supply the entire United States demand for two years" Dodwell and Rixon, Under Cleveland's successor, President William McKinley , opponents of the reserve moved to cut back its boundaries.
With the support of the timber industry and its allies, McKinley issued proclamations in April and July returning more than a third of the reserve's land to the public domain. As Gifford Pinchot , the nation's chief forester, observed, "Nearly every acre of it With Pinchot's support, President Theodore Roosevelt restored , acres to the national forest in the same year. National park proposals reappeared in the early twentieth century as conservation groups such as the Boone and Crockett Club demanded protection of the local Roosevelt elk population.
Hunting and habitat loss had reduced the elk's numbers from an estimated 25, to 40, animals in the s to 2, or fewer in The slaughter of elk for their upper canine teeth, which enjoyed a turn-of-the-century vogue as watch fobs for members of the Elks Lodge, garnered particular notoriety.
Congressman Francis W. Cushman of Tacoma introduced a bill for an "Elk National Park" that would enforce protections for wildlife and timber alike in , but his bill was scuttled after Congressman William E. Humphrey of Seattle introduced competing legislation for a game preserve that would permit the continued extraction of timber. Humphrey and Pinchot later persuaded President Roosevelt, the elk's namesake, to intervene on the animal's behalf.
Following the Secretary of the Interior's determination that no "prospecting for or working of mineral deposits" Lien, 39 was allowed within monument boundaries, business groups such as the Olympic Peninsula Development League and the Seattle Commercial Club agitated for its elimination.
The Seattle Daily Times asserted that "the Olympic Mountains ought to be thrown open to the prospector and the miner, for the rugged men who follow those occupations are always the forerunners of substantial growth" Seattle Daily Times , 6 , while F. Stanard, a Seattle business representative, laid into "Pretorius Pinchot at the tennis court of Theodore the First" for making "a Siberian wilderness of the West" Report of Proceedings , In , at the urging of advocates within the Forest Service, President Woodrow Wilson signed an order more than halving the size of Mount Olympus National Monument and restoring the most heavily timbered lands to Olympic National Forest.
Continued attempts by Washington congressional representatives to gain support for a national park or game refuge failed, and the newly founded National Park Service, established in , declared itself officially uninterested in the region.
Inquiries on behalf of an Olympic National Park would eventually elicit a form-letter response from the Park Service: "It is a very beautiful region, but thus far it has not been demonstrated that it comes up to the standards set for national parks" Lien, Despite the controversy that attended Roosevelt's designation, the Forest Service came to treat the distinction between Mount Olympus National Monument and Olympic National Forest as essentially nominal.
Permits were issued for mining and for the grazing of 1, sheep on Roosevelt elk range near the Lost River. Tellingly, a forest management plan ignored the national monument boundary entirely, prescribing timber harvests throughout the region. Timber extraction accelerated under this approach, characterized as the "gospel of continuous production" Twight, 43 by District Forester C.
By the late s, according to the Forest Service, Grays Harbor County alone was producing "over a billion feet of lumber per year" Forest Service, 6. In the late s, political pressure from conservation advocates and sportsmen's organizations led the Forest Service to produce the Olympic National Forest Recreation Plan, prepared by forest engineer Fred W.
The "Cleator Plan" dedicated fifteen units of Olympic National Forest to partial recreational use and redesignated Mount Olympus National Monument as the "Snow Peaks Recreation Area" while maintaining timber harvests in heavily wooded areas. While this land was ostensibly set aside from development, resource extraction within the Primitive Area and the recreational units remained a matter of administrative discretion: Any merchantable timber within these boundaries would still be targeted for cutting.
In this way, the Forest Service publicly accommodated growing constituencies for preservation and recreation without compromising the timber yield that was its core directive.
In Willard Van Name , a zoologist at the American Museum of Natural History, called attention to conditions in the Olympic forests and other western woodlands in his book Vanishing Forest Reserves. The book depicted a Forest Service that was hostage to timber corporations, logging ancient forests with "little or no return to the federal treasury" Bainbridge, To protect the Olympic woodlands, Van Name proposed a national park that would contain "fine forest of kinds not at all well represented in any of the present parks" Lien, Prospects for a park were reinvigorated in when newly elected President Franklin D.
Roosevelt issued Executive Order , transferring authority over all national monuments, including Mount Olympus National Monument, to the Park Service. The political wind was turning; timber and mining interests' influence had waned in the onset of the Great Depression , and the Forest Service's management of the elk was under renewed criticism for alleged mismanagement of an open season in October An attempt by the chief forester to reverse the transfer of Mount Olympus National Monument was publicly rejected by Secretary of the Interior Harold L.
Ickes the following March. Led by Rosalie Barrow Edge , a former suffragist and "blistering stump speaker" Taylor, , the committee was a small New York City-based pamphleteering operation that commanded a mailing list of some 16, Though infamous for publishing aggressive appeals that "named names in unrestrained assaults on the integrity of its opponents" Bainbridge, 20 , Edge's group nevertheless enjoyed a strong influence within the executive branch.
Riptides and floating logs inhibit swimming or surfing in these waters. The shoreline is more suited to long walks, exploring tide pools, and scouting for the harbor seals, porpoises, sea otters, and other local denizens. Check with the Park Service for more info. All rights reserved. The pandemic has disrupted travel to national parks and wilderness areas. You can also search for parks by state. Planning a visit to a nearby park? Off-season things to do. This article was updated on August 12, ; a version of this text originally appeared in the National Geographic book Parks, Ideas.
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Environment Planet Possible India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big Grassroots efforts are bringing solar panels to rural villages without electricity, while massive solar arrays are being built across the country. Epic floods leave South Sudanese to face disease and starvation. Roosevelt visited Lake Quinault Lodge during a fact-finding trip. During his visit, the topic of establishing a park came up over lunch.
Nine months later, Roosevelt signed a bill creating Olympic National Park, which to this day remains a treasure countless visitors continue to enjoy. Today, the Olympic Peninsula is a dramatic and beautiful setting for hiking, boating, fishing, beach combing and reconnecting with nature. The vast and varied landscape, radiating mountain range, large lowland lakes, and saltwater beaches provide unlimited recreational activities making it an ideal place to experience the majesty of the Pacific Northwest.
This cozy getaway offers a serene retreat from the pressures of the outside world. As far back as the 's, Olympic Peninsula travelers gathered near Lake Quinault at the 'Log Hotel' for lodging, meals, and good times. When improved roads provided easier access, crowds from Grays Harbor often gathered there on weekends to dance and socialize. Then on August 28, , a fire originating in a kitchen flue consumed the entire structure. Turning this tragedy into an opportunity, lodge supporters soon made plans to build a new, better hotel.
After financial backing was secured, the area's finest artisans and craftsmen were assembled and the task began. Day and night work continued nonstop and a mere 53 days later on August 18, a beautiful new resort hotel was unveiled - Lake Quinault Lodge was born. And though this grand Lodge is quite different from its humble predecessor, it continues to offer the same spirit of gracious hospitality as it did in history.
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