Nature’s Champion Olympic National Park, National Geographic: Moody Sub-Alpine Landscape
High on sub-alpine ridges near Obstruction Point and Hurricane Ridge, winds shift clouds of fog to reveal a glimpse of a Columbian black tail deer. Wildlife has room to roam in the 922,651-acre park.
Congress designated 95% of Olympic National Park as wilderness in 1988. Human encroachment is minimal. There are no through roads, only spurs to trails for hiking and horseback riding.
In 1909, just before leaving office, President Theodore Roosevelt issued a proclamation creating Mount Olympus National Monument within the national forest. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s governmental reorganization in 1933 along with the support from national conservation organizations and Washington Congressman Monrad C. Wallgren resulted in a bill to establish Olympic as a national park. Following a visit to the Olympic Peninsula in the fall of 1937, President Roosevelt added his enthusiastic support to the movement, and the act establishing Olympic National Park was signed on June 29, 1938.
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