Blue Mountain (Washington)

Landforms of Olympic National ParkMountains of Clallam County, WashingtonMountains of Washington (state)North American 1000 m summitsOlympic Mountains

Blue Mountain is a 6,004-foot-elevation (1,830-meter) mountain summit located within Olympic National Park in Clallam County of Washington state. Blue Mountain is situated in the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness, 13 miles southeast of Port Angeles and 11 miles southwest of Sequim. Topographic relief is significant as the south aspect rises 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) above Gray Wolf River in approximately 2.5 miles. The mountain's name is due to a soft, blue haze that forms around the mountain in the summer. New settlers to the Olympic Peninsula near the end of the 19th century brought devastating fires started by land clearing and logging activities. The Dungeness Fire of 1891 burned about 30,000 acres, destroying much of the forest around Blue Mountain.Access is via the 19-mile Deer Park Road, and the summit can be reached by walking the half-mile Rain Shadow Loop Trail which gains 170 feet of elevation from road's end. The trail is so named because Blue Mountain lies within the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, receiving 50 inches of precipitation annually compared to more than 200 inches on Mount Olympus, 23 miles distant. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca via Maiden Creek, Siebert Creek, McDonald Creek, Canyon Creek, and Gray Wolf River. The summit offers a view of the San Juan Islands, Victoria across the strait on Vancouver Island, Canada, and on a clear day the eye can see as far as Mount Baker, 87 miles away. The endemic Olympic bellflower can be found near the summit.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Blue Mountain (Washington) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).