The Lyre River starts at the outlet of Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park and flows roughly northwest for 5 miles (8 km) to Low Point on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, about 21 miles (34 km) southeast of Clallam Bay and 19 miles (31 km) west of Port Angeles, Washington. The river was first named Rio de Cuesta in 1790 by Gonzalo López de Haro, but was later called River Lyre after being charted by Captain Henry Kellett in 1847.

The Makah tribe at Neah Bay historically considered the Lyre River to be their eastern territorial boundary, although members of the Elwha Klallam tribe also had settlements along the river including the fishing village of Kwahamish. By the early 1890s, John Hanson and his wife Mary Laeger Hanson had homesteaded near the head of the Lyre River. From 1889 through the 1920s, there was a settlement named Gettysburg on the east side of the river mouth. The community was named after Robert N. Getty, a businessman in the lumber industry. Getty settled in the area and in 1891 built a hotel and several structures that served a local logging boom. Gettysburg had a steamboat connection to Puget Sound cities. The entire town burned to the ground in 1927, reputedly the fire was started by a movie projector.

The Lyre Conservation Area is a property with 280 acres (113 ha) just east of the Lyre River on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This conservation area features the estuary at the mouth of the Lyre River, streams, tide-flats, kelp beds, and a section of the Strait of Juan de Fuca shoreline. It also includes a large diverse upland forest as well as excellent habitat for salmon and a variety of migratory and resident birds and wildlife. Read more here and here. Explore more of Lyre River here: