Mount Olympus, the highest peak in the range at just under eight thousand feet, lies hidden in the interior west of this road. Despite its modest elevation, its position directly in the path of Pacific storms gives it extraordinary snowfall and one of the largest glacier systems in the contiguous United States, the source of several major peninsula rivers.
Mount Olympus is hidden somewhere off to your left, behind all this forest, and here's the surprise about it. It stands just under eight thousand feet, not especially tall as mountains go. But it sits right in the path of every storm off the Pacific, so it's buried in snow and ice. That little peak carries more glacier than mountains twice its height, one of the largest glacier systems left in the lower forty-eight. The water sliding off it feeds the rivers you keep crossing.
Photo: Dllu · CC BY-SA 4.0
