Mount Carrie is a mountain

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

located within

Olympic National Park Olympic National Park is a national park of the United States located in 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 e ...

Clallam County Clallam County is a List of counties in Washington, county in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 77,155, with an estimated population of 77,616 in 2023. The cou ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

state. Mt. Carrie is the highest point in the

Bailey Range The Bailey Range is a mountain range located within Olympic National Park in Washington (U.S. state), Washington state. Description The Bailey Range is a subrange of the Olympic Mountains. These remote mountains are situated within the Daniel ...

which is a subrange of the

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 (Washington), Mount Olympus is the high ...

. With a good eye and clear weather, the mountain can be seen from the visitor center at

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 (alon ...

. Its nearest higher peak is Mount Mathias (7,156 ft) which is an outlier of

Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (, , ) is an extensive massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia, between the regional units of Larissa (regional unit), Larissa and Pieria (regional ...

, to the south. Due to heavy winter snowfalls, Mount Carrie supports the Carrie Glacier in its northeast cirque, and

Fairchild Glacier Fairchild Glacier is located in the U.S. state of Washington on Mount Fairchild and Mount Carrie in the Olympic Mountains of Olympic National Park. Beginning at an elevation of about along the Bailey Ridge, the glacier descends northeast and is ...

on the east slope. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains into tributaries of the

Elwha River The Elwha River is a river on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. From its source at Elwha snowfinger in the Olympic Mountains, it flows generally north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Most of the river's co ...

and

Hoh River The Hoh River is a river of the Pacific Northwest, located on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. About long, the Hoh River originates at the snout of Hoh Glacier on Mount Olympus (Washington), Mount Olym ...

. There is a

scrambling Scrambling is a mountaineering term for ascending steep terrain using one's hands to assist in holds and balance.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. It can be described as being between hiking and climbing, rock climbing. "A scramble" is a relat ...

route via the High Divide Trail and Cat Walk.

History

The

Olympic Peninsula The Olympic Peninsula is a large peninsula in Western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the ...

was largely unmapped until surveyors Arthur Dodwell and Theodore Rixon mapped most of its topography between 1898 and 1900, and what is now Mt. Carrie, was in 1899 one of the last remaining unnamed mountains in the Olympic range. The mountain was named by Theodore Rixon for his wife Caroline "Carrie" (Jones) Rixon. Carrie Rixon was a noted artist, painter, singer, and taught music to children. The Rixons lived at a 160-acre homestead she called Fairholme at the west end of

Lake Crescent Lake Crescent is a deep lake located entirely within Olympic National Park in Clallam County, Washington, United States, approximately west of Port Angeles on U.S. Route 101, near the small community of Piedmont. With an official maximum ...

, until they moved to Teahwhit Head in 1916. Carrie died on May 20, 1946.

Climate

Based on the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

, Mount Carrie is located in the

marine west coast An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring co ...

climate zone of western

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. 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 ins ...

s originate in the

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

, 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. 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. In terms of favorable weather, the best months for viewing and climbing are July through September.

Gallery

File:Mount Carrie Olympic NP.jpg, Mount Fairchild and Mt. Carrie seen from Hurricane Hill File:Mount Carrie from north.jpg, Mount Carrie from north File:Mts. Fairchild and Carrie.jpg, Mount Fairchild (left) and Mt. Carrie seen from Hurricane Hill File:Cat, Fairchild, Carrie.jpg, Cat Peak, Mt. Fairchild, and Mt. Carrie seen from the west along High Divide

References

External links

* * Mount Carrie weather
Mountain Forecast
* Carrie Rixon photo
University of Washington digital library
* Mount Carrie aerial photo
PBase
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carrie, Mount Olympic Mountains Mountains of Washington (state) Landforms of Olympic National Park Two-thousanders of the United States

History

Climate

Gallery

See also

References

External links