Washington State...July 2002
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| Yellow fungus | Trail | Waterfall | Waterfall again | Mountain | Lake Mary | Lake Mary |
The Olympic Mountains are not very high, Mount Olympus, the highest, is just under 8,000 feet, but they rise almost from the water's edge and intercept moisture-rich air masses that move in from the Pacific. As this air is forced over the mountains, it cools and releases moisture in the form of rain or snow. At lower elevations rain nurtures the forests while at higher elevations snow adds to glacial masses that relentlessly carve the landscape. The mountains wring precipitation out of the air so effectively that areas on the northeast corner of the peninsula experience a rain shadow and get very little rain. The town of Sequim gets only 17 inches a year, while less than 30 miles away Mount Olympus receives some 200 inches falling mostly as snow.