Golden Gate Photo - Olympic National Park Gallery
Fine Art Photography from Olympic National Park, Washington.
Olympic National Park forms the core of the Olympic Peninsula. From west to east, it includes the beach, the western rainforests, and glaciated peaks. The highest peak is Mount Olympus at 7,954 feet above sea level. The Olympic Mountains were formed as the North American Plate collided with the Pacific Plate from about 35 million to 11 million years ago. In this collision, the sea floor of the Pacific Plate was forced (subducted) beneath the continental mass of the North American Plate. But ocean floor pillow basalt and deep sea sediments from the Pacific Plate were scraped off the plate during the subduction and accreted to the continental mass as slivers thrust upward and to the east. These slivers of consolidated sea floor scrapings comprise the mass of the mountains. During the Pleistocene ice ages (1.8 million to 11,000 years ago), glaciers carved the tops of the mountains into jagged peaks. Today, the remnants of over 200 glaciers still mantle the high terrain. The abundant westward flow of Pacific moisture is forced up the western slope of the range, resulting in the most rainfall of anywhere in the continental United States with 140 to 160 inches/year falling in the rainforests on the western slopes, and up to 200 inches/year (mostly as snow) falling in the high peaks. East of the park, a rain shadow is formed as less than 20 inches/year fall in many areas. National park status for the 922,651-acre area was granted in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The park is 95% designated wilderness. On infrared satellite photographs of the Olympic Peninsula, the outline of the national park is clearly definable by the edge of clear-cut logging.
Under the Canopy, Sol Duc Valley Print No. A99NW-9-11 |
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Maidenhair Fern, Hoh Rainforest Print No. A99NW-9-5 |
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Hoh River Print No. A99NW-8-3 |
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Pattered Western Hemlock, Queets Rainforest Print No. A99NW-7-5 |
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Regrowth, Quinault Rainforest Print No. A99NW-6-1 |
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Coat of Moss, Quinault Rainforest Print No. A99NW-6-4 |
Hurricane Ridge Viewpoint Print No. A99NW-11-1 |
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