From Washington To You
Lake Crescent Lodge entrance among fir trees in Olympic National Park.
Photograph by Olympic National Park, National Park Service. Public domain.

From Washington to you

Lake Crescent

Lake Crescent · Clallam County · landslide about 7,000 years ago

A glacially carved lake 624 feet deep is so low in nitrogen that NPS says you can see 60 feet down, and it holds two trout found nowhere else.

Lake Crescent sits on the north Olympic Peninsula. NPS says the lake is glacially carved, 11.8 miles long, and 624 feet (190 meters) deep. The water is low in nitrogen. Clarity reaches about 60 feet.

Two trout live only here: the Beardslee rainbow and the Crescenti cutthroat. NPS geology pages say a landslide about 7,000 years ago split Lake Crescent from Lake Sutherland.

The lake is one of the first Olympic waters many visitors see from U.S. 101. The sources below are the National Park Service Lake Crescent brochure and geology page.

  • Geography & Geology
  • Wildlife & Ecology

Sources (2)

Last reviewed: September 20, 2026

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