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Olympic Mountains in North West Washington State

North Western Washington State-Olympic Mountains, Clallam, and Grays Harbor

    The Olympic Mountain region of North Western Washington state sits on the edge of the Pacific Ocean and has many different beautiful types of vegetation and wildlife. The three regions I will be studying are: Olympic National Park, area surrounding Clallam River, and Grays Harbor. I have always been interested in Washington and am excited to learn more about the Northwestern regions.
    The dominant soils in each area vary throughout but also have some similarities. Along the Clallam River, the dominant soil type is Klahowya. Inceptosols cover the majority of the area but there are some spots with andisols along the West coast (Hipple 2001). There was little information for soil columns in the Olympic National Park but the dominant soil type there is spodosols (Hipple 2001). Just a little south of the National Park is Grays Harbor. The andisols are most dominant in this area and also contains some areas with ultisols (Hipple 2001). 
    Landforms are drastically different among these three areas. The Olympic National Park has large hills and mountains that take up most of the area. The forest that dominants the Olympic area is temperate rain forest. Grays Harbor is lower in elevation and have more agricultural areas within this region. The area is south of Olympic National Park and is the start of the mountains that lead north. There are also many river systems that stem from Grays Harbor, West of Olympic National Park. The Clallam river is north of the Olympic National Forest and runs into Clallam Bay. Many river systems stem from Clallam river in the Northern region of this area. Douglas fir dominates this region and most of the regions in Washington. There are also Western Red Cedars and Western hemlocks are spread throughout the region depending on which soils are present. 

 Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park Climograph: shows relatively low temperatures in the winter seasons and moderately high temperatures in June-August. Precipitation is rather low but seems to rise in the winter seasons. 

Spodosols
(USDA Soils)
(SoilWeb 2020)

Grays Harbor
Grays Harbor Area Climograph: higher precipitation levels in this area during winter seasons and about the same temperature as Olympic National Park across all months. Very low precipitation levels June-August. 
Andisols
(USDA Soils)

Ultisols
(USDA Soils)

(SoilWeb 2001)

Clallam Area
Clallam Area Climograph: has the highest average of precipitation. Highest amounts of precipitation in January and November. 
Inceptisols
(USDA Soils)

Andisols
(USDA Soils)


(SoilWeb 2001)

References:
Hipple W., Karl. (2001). Washington Soil Atlas. USDA, Washington State. pp. 1-122. 

National Resources Conservation Service Washington. USDA Soils. https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/wa/soils/?cid=nrcs142p2_053592. 

Soil Web, UC Davis NRCS. (2021). SoilWeb: An Online Soil Survey Browser. https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/.






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