The Olympic Peninsula lies on the western-most portion of Washington State. It is made up mostly of state and national forests and is bounded on three sides by bodies of water: the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the north, and Admiralty Inlet and the Hood Canal on the east.

The Peninsula is an area of great natural beauty, with a spiny circle of mountains around a central peak, Mount Olympus, which soars to 8,000 feet. Port Townsend is on the Quimper Peninsula, a smaller peninsula that is part of the Olympic Peninsula, and it, like all other peninsulas, is surrounded on three sides by bodies of water.