Even if you can’t travel to the park right now, you can still see, hear and experience what’s happening in Olympic National Park, thanks to some amazing technology such as webcams and Google Earth. Here are some of our favorite ways to feel like we are in the park, even when we’re nowhere near it.
Fly Virtually to Olympic
Fly above Mount Olympus, hover over the Hoh Rain Forest and check out the tides at Third Beach when you visit Olympic National Park with Google Earth. You’ll get a tremendous sense of Olympic’s incredibly varied terrain from its gorgeous coastline to its green rain forests and snow-covered peaks. earth.google.com+
Olympic National Park Webcams
See what the weather’s like at Hurricane Ridge, how crowded First Beach is and what’s happening at Kalaloch and Lake Crescent when you check out the webcams positioned at each of those places. www.nps.gov/olym/learn/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm
See the Elwha Dam Be Deconstructed
The park staff have made videos and photos of the park available to those interested. A highlight is a webisode series on how the Elwha Dam was deconstructed to enable wild salmon to once again run up the river. It’s a rare opportunity to learn from people on the ground about the largest dam removal in United States history. www.nps.gov/olym/learn/photosmultimedia/
Check out Scenic and Wildlife Photos
The park has an archive of photos of more than 800 photos of animals and landscapes that you can view on Flickr. Spend some time in this incredible archive, picking out sites you recognize and putting others on your bucket list. www.flickr.com/photos/olympicnps/albums