About sixty glaciers crown Olympic's peaks. The most prominent of these cover approximately 10 square miles on Mount Olympus. These Olympic glaciers are slow moving.
Olympic National Park was recognized internationally as a biosphere reserve in 1976. Research and experiments are taking place in the rainforest area.
In 1981, Olympic National Park was given recognition as a World Heritage Site.
The park contains a large protected ecosystem with over 1200 higher plants, 300 species of birds,and over 70 species of mammals. There are at least 8 kinds of plants and 18 kinds of animals found only on the Olympic peninsula and no other place in the world.
Olympic National Park was originally set up as a National Monument to protect wildlife. The Roosevelt elk, sometimes referred to as Olympic elk, is found in the Northwest. It was named after President Theodore Roosevelt. It is an extremely shy animal and you may not see any while you are visiting the park.
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