The Elwha River is a 45 miles (72.4 km)-long river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 located on the Olympic Peninsula

Olympic Peninsula

The Olympic Peninsula is the large arm of land in western Washington state of the USA, that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Puget Sound. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous...

 in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Washington. From its source at Elwha snowfinger

Elwha snowfinger

The Elwha Snowfinger is a perennial snowfield created near the Dodwell Rixon Pass, separating the Elwha River and Queets River watersheds in the USA. This snowfield is created by continuous winter and spring avalanches into the upper pass area. It is the source of the Elwha River....

 in the Olympic Range of Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park is located in the U.S. state of Washington, in the Olympic Peninsula. The park can be divided into four basic regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west side temperate rainforest and the forests of the drier east side. U.S...

 it flows generally north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca

Strait of Juan de Fuca

The Strait of Juan de Fuca is a large body of water about long that is the Salish Sea outlet to the Pacific Ocean...

. Most of the river is contained within Olympic National Park. There are two dams on the river's lower course, both of which are scheduled to be removed.

The river is one of the few in the Pacific Northwest to contain all 5 species of Pacific Salmon and also contains four other anadromous trout

Trout

Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...

 species.