OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — The National Park Service is bringing the outdoors inside.
Olympic National Park has closed campgrounds, roads and beaches during Gov. Jay Inslee’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy order, but it is offering ways to enjoy the park online and through following the park on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The annual National Park Week, which includes Earth Day, is generally devoted to encouraging visitors to explore the outdoors. This year, in light of COVID-19 precautions, each day of the week, which began Saturday and runs though this coming Sunday, is highlighted with a theme that explains an aspect of national parks.
In addition, park staff members have created thank you cards that can be printed, colored and given to family members, essential workers or other COVID-19 heroes. Find them at tinyurl.com/PDN-coloringpages.
Today’s National Park Week theme is Friendship Friday, which provides details about partnering with the park.
Saturday is Park Rx Day, which describes how the park can contribute to physical and mental health. And Sunday is Bark Ranger Day, dealing with dogs.
For more details about the theme days of National Park Week, see tinyurl.com/PDN-npw.
The NPS Kids Portal at www.nps.gov/kids/index.htm offers activities and online programs, with virtual tours, videos, and webcams from national parks all across the country.
Park officials are asking people to share their favorite Olympic National Park memories, photos, and stories by tagging it and using the hashtags #FindYour Park and #NationalPark Week.
Through Sunday, a special, limited-time park ranger emoji will appear with the use of these hashtags, in addition to #FindYourVirtualPark and #EncuentraTuParque on Twitter.
Starting at the home page at www.nps.gov/olym/index.htm, visitors can check out webcams, find out about science and research and get more information about the national park.
Photos are in online galleries on the website and Flickr.
