Mount Angeles is located just south of Port Angeles, Washington in the

Olympic National Park Olympic National Park is a United States national park located in the State of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. The park has four regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west-side temperate rainforest, and the forests of the drier ...

. It is the highest peak in the

Hurricane Ridge Hurricane Ridge is a mountainous area in Washington's Olympic National Park. Approximately by road from Port Angeles, the ridge is open to hiking, skiing, and snowboarding and is one of the two most visited sites in the national park (along with ...

area. The summit, which offers panoramic views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and many of the peaks of the interior

Olympic Mountains 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 at ; however, the east ...

can be climbed from the Klahane Ridge trail. The southeast side of Mount Angeles drains into Morse Creek, thence into the Strait of Juan de Fuca a couple of miles east of Port Angeles. The northeast side of Mount Angeles drains into Ennis Creek, thence into Port Angeles Harbor. The north and west sides of Mount Angeles drain into the South Branch of Little River, thence into the Juan de Fuca Strait via the Elwha River, whose mouth is located in the

Lower Elwha Indian Reservation Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Lower Wick is a small hamlet located in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It is situated about five miles south west of Dursley, eight ...

, a few miles west of Port Angeles.

Climate

Mount Angeles is located in the

marine west coast An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

climate zone of western North America. Angeles in winter

Most

weather front A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For ...

s originate in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, and travel northeast toward the

. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Olympic Range, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall (

Orographic lift Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and cr ...

). As a result, the Olympics experience high precipitation, especially during the winter months in the form of snowfall. During winter months, weather is usually cloudy, but, due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is often little or no cloud cover during the summer.

Geology

The Olympic Mountains are composed of obducted clastic wedge material and oceanic crust, primarily

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

turbidite A turbidite is the geologic deposit of a turbidity current, which is a type of amalgamation of fluidal and sediment gravity flow responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean. Sequencing Turbidites w ...

, and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

ic oceanic crust. The mountains were sculpted during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

era by erosion and glaciers advancing and retreating multiple times.

References

Gallery

File:Mount Angeles, north aspect.jpg, North aspect File:Mount Angeles tilted layers.jpg, Mount Angeles summit. Notice the steeply tilted layers of ocean floor sediments File:Mount Angeles from Eagle Point.jpg, Mount Angeles seen from Eagle Point File:Mt. Angeles, Rocky Peak.jpg, Mt. Angeles (left), Rocky Peak (right)

External links

* Mount Angeles weather
Mountain Forecast
* Mountains of Washington (state) Mountains of Clallam County, Washington Olympic Mountains Landforms of Olympic National Park {{ClallamCountyWA-geo-stub

Climate

Geology

See also

References

Gallery

External links