- A day or two after my arrival I went down to the mouth of the creek which gives its name to the post and the locality, and had my first sight of the Sound. Two gentlemen from the post were with me, and I could not control my admiration at the beauty of the scene. The tide was flood and the limpid waters reproduced the fir-clad shores. The snow-clad Olympics were in full view, and clear air enabled us to see far into the Narrows. I found out afterward that only on exceptional days in winter could this effect be seen.
- They have located claims near here and are living on them with their families waiting for a town to grow up. We walked over to their property, which certainly exceeds anything in Washington or Oregon for beauty and fertility, if they were only disposed to farm. The Olympic range cannot be more than thirty miles to the west. Mount Baker is on the east, and below us lies the harbor [Port Townsend Bay]. Vivid stretches of lawn interrupt the woods and appear on the headlands and islands.
- June 4th [of 1853]. Hunting. On the 4th I spent the day hunting…I. passed through the tide prairies east of camp, through the timber onto a large gravelly prairie. Here I saw abundant signs of bear, deer, elk and moose, but as they could only be found in the timber I proceeded to the southern border, where the ground ascended one of the foothills of the Olympics.
- The air was still and dry, and I was faint for want of water. I did not expect to find any, but by a strange good fortune I came across a cavity in a fallen cedar, burnt out by the fire and shielded from the sun, which had caught and preserved the rain as it seemed for my especial restoration. I spent half an hour in climbing a tree, but I could see nothing except forest to the west and east. Beyond the prairie and strip of wood the Strait of Fuca was partly visible, and to the south mountain after mountain rose, until the furthest ones were white with snow. I did not get into camp until 6 o’clock and I was much exhausted. One of the men brought in a deer.
- Olympic Mountains (Wikipedia)
The Olympic Mountains are a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are not especially high – Mount Olympus is the highest summit at 7,980 ft (2,432 m); however, the eastern slopes rise precipitously out of Puget Sound from sea level, and the western slopes are separated from the Pacific Ocean by the low-lying 20 to 35 km (12 to 22 mi) wide Pacific Ocean coastal plain. These densely forested western slopes are the wettest place in the 48 contiguous states. Most of the mountains are protected within the bounds of Olympic National Park and adjoining segments of the Olympic National Forest.
