Jim Wittaker, the first American to successfully climb Mount Everest, trained domestically for the summit in the rugged conditions of Mount Rainier. Learn more about how to prepare for a climb.
Mount Rainier's trails connect hikers with nature. The park includes a hugely complex ecosystem producing diverse beauty and vegetation.
The mile long Wonderland Trail was used over years ago by patrol officers and firefighters and was the first trail in the park that fully encircled Mount Rainier. The park offers over miles of maintained trails for your enjoyment with some ranging from a few miles to over 20 miles.
This picture-perfect natural wonder has an explosive interior. Volcanic activity began one half to one million years ago, and Mount Rainier has erupted again and again, alternating between quiet lava-producing eruptions and explosive debris-producing eruptions. The most recent eruption was a small summit explosion sometime between and You can see the effects on the landscape in the lava ridges and fumaroles, which expel steam and other gases through volcanic vents. Generations of Native Americans, explorers and settlers all lived in the area.
These individuals left a rich archaeological history including hints to previous weather patterns, animals that roamed the area, and settlement remnants. The park is home to over species of wildlife. If you get very lucky, you may catch a glimpse of a Pacific fisher, a house-cat sized member of the weasel family. The Pacific Fisher was eradicated by hunters from the area in the mid 's, but starting in , the park, along with state and private partners, started to reintroduce fishers into the park.
Park winters supply an abundance of snow-covered views and activities. Families searching for winter snow play should look no further; Rainier offers sledding in the Paradise area, back-country winter camping, skiing and snowboarding.
Beautiful wildflowers transform meadows into an ocean of color in peak season at Mount Rainier. Most years, flowers will bloom in mid-July, and by August the park is awash with a beautiful seasonal hue. There are hundreds of species of wildflowers to be found in the park, from Alpine Asters to the Glacier Lilies.
In his vision, the government would build critical infrastructure, while private interests would provide lodging, transportation, and attractions. Each park would grant an exclusive monopoly to a chosen company. They opened the Paradise Inn in , and with support from the park, bought out competing camps. While these early successes encouraged company officials, they failed to achieve their long-term goals.
Instead of attracting well-heeled patrons from afar, too many park visitors drove from Seattle and Tacoma on summer weekends and preferred free, government-run campgrounds over the company's hotels, tent camps, and dining halls. The Cooperative Campers of the Pacific Northwest opposed the very existence of a corporate monopoly in the park and offered an alternative. Campers could pay an extra fee to have bags transported from one camp to another.
RNPC leaders objected to this competition, and park officials sided with them. They arrested and fined a packer working for the Campers in for running an unauthorized concession, but they shied away from more decisive actions against the organization to avoid public backlash. Conflict ended after the season when, seemingly, the Cooperative Campers disbanded. Growth and development spawned numerous battles over use of the park, and it was up to park officials and rangers to police and define acceptable limits.
The Department of the Interior first appointed a ranger to monitor Mount Rainier and the larger forest reserve shortly before the park was established.
In , Forest Supervisor Grenville Allen became the first superintendent for the park and recruited seasonal rangers. At his urging, the park hired two permanent rangers in Among other duties, rangers built trails to serve as patrol routes and improve access to the park's backcountry for tourists. They completed the park's flagship trail, the Wonderland Trail, in , although the original route was substantially longer and different than today's mile trail.
The park act clearly prohibited large-scale, industrial logging, but Grenville Allen briefly allowed limited timber sales. In and , he let companies take dead cedar for shingles, as foresters at the time placed little ecological or aesthetic value on dead, decayed, and downed trees. Park visitors objected, and an investigation launched by The Mountaineers found that companies used an extremely broad definition of "dead. Officials had to accept mining in the park. More than claims existed when the park was created, mostly near Eagle Peak, along the Carbon River, and in Glacier Basin.
Pressure from park officials led Congress to prohibit new claims in , but the law had no effect on existing operations. Few of the mines were significantly developed and none of them yielded real profits, but the park did not obtain possession of all claims until Despite the environmental threat posed by mining, related road construction benefitted the park.
The Mount Rainier Mining Company in Glacier Basin, for instance, poured money and labor into building the White River Road, and improved access for miners, rangers, and tourists. Park rangers also had a mandate to protect game and fish. They flatly prohibited hunting and patrolled to combat poaching, but the small number of rangers and size of the park limited their effectiveness. In one dramatic case, rangers, in the summer of , confronted a party of Yakama hunters camped in Yakima Park Sunrise.
The hunters argued they had a right to hunt under the terms of the Walla Walla Treaty. Park officials sought guidance, and a solicitor in the Department of the Interior sided with the hunters. Ultimately, park officials ignored his conclusions, sent rangers to arrest Yakama hunters in , and apparently convinced them to not return.
Rangers also hunted predators to protect game. In contrast, the park actively encouraged sport fishing and, in , began to stock lakes with non-native species — a practice that altered ecosystems and harmed native fish and amphibian populations. Defining the proper forms of recreation in a national park posed an additional, long-term challenge.
In , the RNPC opened a nine-hole golf course at Paradise in an effort to attract tourists to the inn. The park service allowed it as golf was "a country game, not a city one," and felt golf could be "justified in a national park easier than tennis" Catton, National Park, City Playground , The short summer season, however, made the course impractical, and it closed the following year.
Skiing at Paradise endured. The first skiers took to the mountain in and, in the s, downhill skiing exploded in popularity. The first Silver Skis race in attracted a crowd of 5, and gained enough attention that the U.
National Downhill and Slalom Championships and U. Olympic trials were held at Paradise in The park added a rope tow in , but the RNPC and skiing enthusiasts repeatedly pushed for a permanent chair lift or aerial tram. Park officials refused, and they increasingly questioned the appropriateness of downhill skiing in the park. Due to the lack of development and the growth of competing facilities, downhill skiing at Paradise ended in The onset of the Great Depression led to changes in park use and spurred the federal government to take a greater role in park development.
More significantly, the Civilian Conservation Corp established eight camps in the park. Each camp housed men, and, among other projects, they worked to build and maintain roads, trails, picnic shelters, backcountry shelters, and campgrounds. Visitorship declined at the start of the Depression, but quickly rebounded by the mids. Visitors eschewed the relatively expensive concessions offered by the RNPC, including new facilities at Sunrise, and flocked to the park's campgrounds.
New Deal projects ended with the rise of World War II, but the federal government found new, military uses for the park. The park welcomed soldiers with free recreation, and the park served as a training ground. In the winter of , 24 soldiers stayed at Longmire and trained on skis alongside park rangers. One thousand soldiers in the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment trained over the next winter and alternated use of the slopes at Paradise with tourists. After joining the 10th Mountain Division in Colorado, the 87th fought in the Italian campaign and suffered heavy casualties.
Prosperity and improved transportation in the post-war era fueled a surge in park attendance and an increase in development. Again, the federal government stepped in.
It bought out RNPC buildings in , although it continued to contract out operations to the RNPC until and has partnered with other companies since then. Increased funding from the Mission 66 project, a national effort to improve parks by , led to more road construction.
Officials opened the Stevens Canyon Road in , and a new route, more suitable for winter driving, was built to Paradise. Some users demanded even more development. Development led to growing concerns about the park's environment, and the Wilderness Act of forced the park to address them.
Under the law, the park had to determine what areas should be designated as wilderness. Mount Rainier made its proposal in , and, today, roughly 97 percent of the park is classified that way. Mount Rainier is a living laboratory that offers opportunities for scientists and students to study and develop a deeper understanding of as well as foster an appreciation for the park, its resources, processes, and meanings. Mount Rainier offers recreational and educational opportunities in a wide range of scenic settings, including wildflower meadows, glaciers, and old growth forests, all in a relatively compact area that is easily accessed by a large urban population.
The park's terrain and weather conditions offer world-class climbing opportunities that have tested the skills of climbers for more than a century. Recreational and educational opportunities Short hikes Places to visit in the park Challenge of the Wonderland Trail.
Explore This Park. Mount Rainier National Park Washington. Info Alerts Maps Calendar Reserve. Alerts In Effect Dismiss. Dismiss View all alerts. Mount Rainier is a special place. Evening light reveals Mount Rainier in clouds and pink alpenglow.
Mount Rainier has one cubic mile of glacial ice covering the mountain. Mount Rainier and its associated geologic and glacial features At a height of 14, feet, Mount Rainier is the highest volcanic peak in the contiguous United States. Nearly all of the drainages from Mount Rainier flow into Puget Sound. Any major volcanic activity on the mountain would threaten these areas. NPS Photo Source of water for the Puget Sound region Mount Rainier National Park protects the headwaters of five major watersheds that originate on the mountain's glaciers and are an important source of water for the Puget Sound region.
Subalpine meadow with magenta paintbrush, subalpine lupine, and American bistort. Small tarn surrounded by subalpine firs. There are several of these small lakes on the Lakes trail at the lower end of Mazama ridge near Paradise. Wilderness in our national parks Videos: America's Wilderness Enjoy but preserve Wilderness allows us to experience natural environments unchanged by humans. How to practice "Leave No Trace" Video: Leave No Trace Preserving Paradise Wildlife encounters It is thrilling to see animals in the wild, and it's important to know what to do or not to do when you encounter wildlife.
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