Sitting atop the Olympic Peninsula, Port Angeles has the Olympic Mountains at its back and the Juan de Fuca Strait at its shoreline; just 17 miles across the strait is Victoria, British Columbia. Ediz Hook, a sandspit, protects the harbor and helps make it the first American port of entry for ships coming to Puget Sound from all parts of the Pacific; there is a US Coast Guard Air Rescue Station here. A Spanish captain who entered the harbor in 1791 named the village he found here Port of Our Lady of the Angels, a name that has survived in abbreviated form. The fishing fleet; pulp, paper and lumber mills; and tourism are its economic mainstays today.

Port Angeles is the headquarters for Olympic National Park. It is an excellent starting point for expeditions to explore the many faces of the peninsula.