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50 free Olympic National Park trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Olympic National Park trivia quiz covers the Washington park that packs three worlds into one peninsula: a wild 60-mile Pacific coastline, the moss-draped Hoh and Quinault temperate rainforests, and the glaciated Olympic Mountains crowned by Mount Olympus. It ranges across Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent, the Ozette Loop, the Kalaloch Big Cedar and the endemic Olympic marmot that lives nowhere else. There is plenty of history too: the 1774 Spanish naming of the peak, the two Roosevelts who protected the elk that carry their name, the 1938 park act, UNESCO status, the wilderness renamed for Senator Dan Evans, the 2023 fire that destroyed the Hurricane Ridge lodge, and the Elwha dam removals that were the biggest in history and let salmon back into 65 miles of river. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one, so it works for a road-trip game around Highway 101 or a serious park-nerd challenge. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. If you enjoy it, try our Mount Rainier, North Cascades and US National Parks quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Olympic National Park sits on a peninsula in which U.S. state?
Washington
It drew more than 3.7 million visitors in 2024, ranking 25th among all U.S. park units.
Q 02Which of these is NOT one of the park's four regions?
High desert
The drier east-side forests are the fourth, sitting in the rain shadow of the western peaks.
Q 03Which president first protected the area as a national monument in 1909?
Theodore Roosevelt
His main goal was to protect the calving grounds and summer range of the elk herds that already carried his name.
Q 04In what year did Congress and FDR make it a national park?
1938
FDR had toured the peninsula the year before and seen the elk named after his distant cousin.
Q 05Which animal, the biggest elk subspecies by body mass, was the park's founding reason for protection?
Roosevelt elk
C. Hart Merriam named the subspecies for his friend, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, in December 1897.
Q 06Which UNESCO designation did the park receive in 1981?
World Heritage Site
It had already been named an International Biosphere Reserve in 1976.
Q 07Roughly what share of the park is designated wilderness?
95%
At 1,370 square miles it is the largest wilderness area in the state.
Q 08In 2017 the park's wilderness was renamed for which former governor and U.S. senator?
Daniel J. Evans
As a senator, Evans co-sponsored the 1988 bill that created the state's wilderness areas.
Q 09What is the highest peak in the park and the Olympic Mountains?
Mount Olympus
Oddly, Mount Constance and The Brothers are better known because they can be seen from Seattle; the high point itself is hidden deep in the range.
Q 10Roughly how high is the park's highest summit?
About 7,980 feet
Despite that modest height, heavy snow lets it carry big glaciers, including the 3-mile Hoh Glacier.
Q 11Spanish explorer Juan Pérez gave the park's highest mountain what name in 1774?
Cerro Nevado de Santa Rosalía
It is said to be the first time a European named any geographic feature in what is now the state.
Q 12Which British explorer gave the peak its current name on July 4, 1788?
John Meares
An 1890 Army expedition led by Joseph P. O'Neil is thought to have reached the peak's southern summit.
Q 13Which is the largest glacier on the peak, by area and volume?
Blue
The Hoh Glacier is the longest at 3.06 miles; the park's glacier count fell from 266 in 1982 to 184 by 2009.
Q 21Lake Crescent, with an official maximum depth of 624 feet, ranks where among the state's deepest lakes?
Second
Low nitrogen keeps algae from growing, which is why the water is so brilliantly blue and clear.
Q 22Klallam legend says Mount Storm King hurled a boulder that split which lake off from Lake Crescent?
Sutherland
Geologists agree a giant landslide about 8,000 years ago dammed Indian Creek and separated the two lakes.
Q 23Which trout, found only in Lake Crescent, evolved after a landslide landlocked the lake's fish?
Beardslee
Another endemic, the Crescenti cutthroat, spawns in Barnes Creek.
Q 14Which famous rainforest on the park's west side receives around 140 inches of precipitation a year?
Hoh
Its Sitka spruce and western hemlock can top 300 feet tall and 23 feet across, all draped in moss.
Q 15Unlike tropical rainforests, the park's rainforests are dominated by what kind of tree?
Conifers
Sitka spruce, western hemlock, Douglas-fir and western redcedar do the heavy lifting under all that moss.
Q 16What tiny monument in the Hoh Rainforest marks its creator's 'quietest place in the US'?
One Square Inch of Silence
It was set down as a protest in favour of noise control, and about 460,000 people visited the Hoh district in 2024.
Q 17What happened in 2014 to the 1,000-year-old western redcedar near Kalaloch, thought to be the state's oldest tree?
Half of it fell in a winter storm
The remaining half of the Kalaloch Big Cedar Tree still stands and can be visited.
Q 18Which 5,242-foot viewpoint is one of the park's two most visited spots and hosts a small ski area?
Hurricane Ridge
It gets some 400 inches of snow a year and is named for its intense gales.
Q 19What happened to the 1950s-era visitor lodge on the park's most visited ridge on May 7, 2023?
It burned down
Congress set aside $80 million later that year to rebuild it and stand up a temporary centre.
Q 20In which year did the road up to the park's 5,242-foot ski ridge open to traffic on New Year's Day?
1958
Superintendent Fred Overly pushed the road and lodge to boost visitation, part of the Park Service's Mission 66 era.
Q 24Which cat-sized rodent, found only on the peninsula, became the state's endemic mammal in 2009?
Olympic marmot
It hibernates from September to May and loses half its body mass doing it.
Q 25What is the main predator of the park's endemic, cat-sized alpine rodent?
Coyote
Marmots use four different whistles to warn each other, and colonies can hold up to 40 animals.
Q 26Which non-native animal, introduced in the 1920s, damaged the park's plants so badly the NPS launched control plans?
Mountain goat
The park's isolation on a peninsula bred many endemic plants, such as Piper's bellflower and Flett's violet, that goats trampled.
Q 27Roughly how many cougars live in the park?
About 150
Black bears and black-tailed deer are also abundant, and six species of bat roost in the forests.
Q 28How long is the park's separate coastal strip?
About 60 miles
FDR had wanted a continuous strip of parkland linking the coast to the mountains, but the two pieces remain separate.
Q 29Which 9-mile coastal loop, from a lake via boardwalks through cedar swamp, is the park's most popular shore walk?
Ozette
Usage is controlled by a registration and reservation programme, and the area was traditionally favoured by the Makah of Neah Bay.
Q 30Which tribe lives at La Push, at a river mouth inside the park's coastal strip?
Quileute
The Hoh people live at the mouth of the Hoh River farther south.