Olympic Mountains

Olympic Mountains, segment of the Pacific mountain system of western North America. They extend across the Olympic Peninsula south of the Juan de Fuca Strait and west of Puget Sound in northwestern Washington, U.S. The mountains began to form about 35 million years ago when the Juan de Fuca Plate collided with and was forced under (subducted) the North American Plate, scraping off vast quantities of rock onto the continent as it went underneath. Over time the rock was sculpted by streams and glaciers, creating valleys, lakes, and rugged peaks.

Several peaks exceed 7,000 feet (2,100 meters), including Mounts Anderson, Deception, and Olympus, the last of which, at 7,965 feet (2,428 meters), is the highest. The range holds about 60 glaciers. The prevailing westerly wind off the Pacific Ocean produces heavy annual precipitation (more than 160 inches [4,000 mm] in places) on the western slopes, resulting in the formation of picturesque rainforests dominated by Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, western red cedar, bigleaf maple, and western hemlock. Some trees reach heights of 300 feet (90 meters) and diameters of more than 7 feet (2 meters). The eastern slopes receive much less precipitation and are less thickly forested.

The Spanish navigator Juan Perez sighted the mountains in 1774. John Meares, an English voyager, named the highest peak in 1788 because it appeared, like the Greek Mount Olympus, to be a fit home for the gods. The mountains lie largely within Olympic National Park, created in 1938 for recreation and for conserving the mountains, forests, and wildlife (including the rare Roosevelt elk), and Olympic National Forest, used for recreation and such commercial activities as timber production. The isolation of the mountains gave rise to several endemic plant and animal species, such as the Flett’s violet and the Olympic marmot.