National Geographic Special - The World\'s Most Beautiful Places

olympic

national

park

21 PEAKS & VALLEYS

OLYMPIC PENINSULA,

WASHINGTON

The U.S. National Park Service has called this

picturesque expanse “three parks in one.” Only

three? Someone needs to recount, because few

areas in North America are quite as varied. Land-

scape proliferates, from the wild beaches at the

park’s fringes, through vast tracts of old-growth

rain forest dense with mossy undergrowth and

fast-flowing streams, to the alpine meadows and

deep-cut valleys that herald the glaciers at the

park’s jagged, mountainous heart.

DON’T MISS

Few roads penetrate the park’s mountainous interior, but

Hurricane Ridge ofers accessible alpine and Nordic skiing,

along with superb views of the surrounds.

Deer graze (above) on sloping fields at Hurricane Ridge in

Olympic National Park; a bunchberry flower (left) nestles

among ferns.