Road will open at 9am. All vehicles must carry chains. The uphill gate closes at 4pm; all vehicles must be below the entrance station by 5pm. Lifts and children’s sledding area open. No potable water, or food service are available.
Hoh Rain Forest area will reopen when county road is repaired - 3/13/25
Olympic National Park will begin restoring essential services to the Hoh Rain Forest once the Upper Hoh Road, which is maintained by Jefferson County, is safe for travel. Until then, the area is closed to all traffic, including pedestrians & bicycles. More
Many people come to the national parks to view wildlife. While large animals may come to mind first, the Pacific Northwest is well-known for some unique species including slugs, butterflies, and starfish. These are just a couple of the thousands of invertebrates that call this peninsula home. Truly, the unsung heroes of any ecosystem are the invertebrates—the insects, slugs, spiders, worms, molluscs, and others that many often try to avoid, but may appreciate more than they realize. Through the forest, fresh river water, salty ocean water, and even in other animals, invertebrates call Olympic home. By definition, invertebrates are animals without a backbone, but they act as the backbone of many ecosystems throughout Olympic.
Do you enjoy the lush greenery in the rainforests? Invertebrates help to orchestrate the cycle of birth and life in the forest, decomposing downed trees and recycling nutrients. Do you enjoy the beautiful colors of spring flowers blooming from the low valleys to the mountain peaks? Invertebrates pollinate many flowers and important plant species. Do you enjoy seeing larger fauna roam our landscape? Invertebrates serve as food for bigger species. Whole tiny food chains go about their business high in the forest canopy, while unsuspecting humans walk below. Warblers forage for spiders that are feeding on mites that are eating minute fungi growing on the needles of towering trees. Do you enjoy the unique rocky and colorful ecosystem that comes into view during low-tide? Among the tide pools, one can see countless colorful invertebrates forming a crowded tapestry of often unrecognizable shapes and textures, from eraser-sized orange nudibranches, to soft, gooey sea squirts, to spiny purple sea urchins.
Green anemone in and out of water
Margo Roseum
Over 90 percent of Earth's species are invertebrates! We can understand them better by classifying them further into categories:
Annelids such as leeches and earthworms
Arthropods such as crabs, spiders, insects and mites
Mollusks such as slugs, snails, octopuses, and clams
Nematodes such as pinworms and nematodes
Platyhelminths such as flatworms and tapeworms
There are no Porifera (sponges) in Olympic because the living conditions they require are not available
Some of these species are more common to see than others, but all are playing a role throughout Olympic. To learn more about the importance of these animals, look into their habitat pages and look for signs of them throughout Olympic on your next visit!
Sites:North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park
Most flowering plants rely on insect pollinators for successful reproduction. Thus many plant-feeding animals (like bears, goats, elk) are also dependent on insect pollinators for their well-being. Still, park scientists know relatively little about the diversity of native insect pollinators. We designed a study to document the diversity of two very important groups of insect pollinators in North Cascades and Olympic National Parks: bees and flower flies.
Sites:Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park, San Juan Island National Historical Park
A comprehensive list of butterfly species found in Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park Complex, Olympic National Park, and San Juan Island National Historical Park.
Sites:Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park
Syrphid flies, also known as hoverflies or flower flies, feed on nectar or pollen and are frequently observed on flowers in subalpine and alpine ecosystems. However, there is little research on their distribution or importance as pollinators. In 2014, Dr. Jessica Rykken conducted pollinator surveys in Olympic National Park and North Cascades National Park Service Complex, and documented 57 taxa of syrphid flies.
Sites:Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park, San Juan Island National Historical Park
Moths are insects and members of the taxonomic order of Lepidoptera. They and their larvae provide food for other insects, fish, and animals, and they are pollinators for many nocturnally flowering plants. Over the last five years, parks in the North Coast and Cascades Network have conducted Bioblitzes to begin developing species lists of moths in our parks.
Sites:Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park, San Juan Island National Historical Parkmore »
Bees are some of the most abundant and important pollinators in the world – especially in mountainous environments. Despite the importance of bees in our natural environments, many national parks do not know what species live within their boundaries. In 2016, to celebrate the Centennial of the National Park Service, North Coast and Cascades national parks focused on inventories of pollinators, including bees.
