Brinnon is a small, unincorporated census-designated place in Jefferson County, Washington, set along the western shore of Hood Canal on the Olympic Peninsula. U.S. Highway 101, the peninsula's main north-south route, runs directly through the community, linking it to Quilcene and the Hood Canal Bridge to the north and to the larger towns of the eastern Olympic Peninsula. At the 2020 census, Brinnon recorded 907 residents, though its scenic shoreline and state park bring many additional seasonal visitors and vacation homeowners to the area each year. The community traces its name to Ewell P. Brinnon, who established a donation land claim at the mouth of the Duckabush River in the late 1850s, one of the early Euro-American settlements on this stretch of Hood Canal. For much of its history Brinnon has been a small logging, fishing, and subsistence community, and those ties to the water and forest remain central to its identity today. Brinnon's defining natural feature is Hood Canal itself, a long, fjord-like arm of Puget Sound known for its clean, cold waters and abundant shellfish. The tidelands near Dosewallips State Park and along the canal are productive grounds for oysters, clams, geoduck, Dungeness crab, and spotted shrimp, and harvesting is a way of life for many residents. To the west, the land climbs quickly into the Olympic Mountains and the Olympic National Forest, giving the town a dramatic backdrop of forest and peaks. For homebuyers, Brinnon offers a rare combination of saltwater frontage, outdoor recreation, and a genuinely rural pace, all within a two-to-three-hour drive of the Seattle–Tacoma metropolitan area.