Frommer's National Parks of the American West - Don Laine [274]
Although the mountain is a magnet for climbers, the adventurers make up only a tiny fraction of the two million visitors who come to the park each year. This mountain is really all about hiking through subalpine meadows, the main activity pursued by the vast majority of park visitors, most of whom visit during the short summer season (July–Sept in the higher elevations).
Scenic idylls through flower-strewn meadows aside, the Cascades are not dead—they're just sleeping. The eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, drove that fact home. But what of Mount Rainier? Snow and glaciers notwithstanding, Rainier has a heart of fire. Steam vents at the mountain's summit are evidence of that. Though the volcanic peak has not erupted for more than 150 years, it could erupt again at any time. Some scientists believe that Rainier's volcanic activity occurs in 3,000-year cycles; if this holds true, it'll be another 500 years (give or take) before another big eruption. So go ahead and plan that trip. Probably only the scenery will blow you away.
Terrain. According to local legend, Martha Longmire, who helped found the first hotel in the area, was supposed to have exclaimed, "This must be what paradise is like," upon her first visit to the subalpine meadows that now bear that name. These meadows, now the site of the Paradise Inn (currently closed for renovations) and the Jackson Visitor Center, are the most popular spots in the park. Wildflowers cover the slopes, and the vast bulk of the mountain rises so steeply overhead that it is necessary to strain one's neck to gaze up at the summit.
Mount Rainier lies toward the southern end of the Washington Cascades. Here, the crags of the North Cascades give way to a volcanic landscape of rolling hills punctuated by Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and, to the east, Mount Adams and Goat Rocks: the latter but a remnant of an ancient volcano, the former, a snow cone as impressive as Mount Rainier.
It is said that Rainier makes its own weather, and more often than not, it isn't what people consider good weather. Rising more than 2 miles above the surrounding landscape, Mount Rainier interrupts the eastward flow of moisture-laden air that comes in off the Pacific Ocean. Forced upward into the colder altitudes, this moist air drops its load of water on the mountain. At lower elevations on the west side, the moisture falls as rain, which creates a rain forest in the Carbon River Valley. However, at higher elevations, the precipitation falls as snow. On average, about 680 inches of snow falls each winter at Paradise on Mount Rainier, but in the winter of 1971–72, 1,122 inches (94 ft.) of snow were recorded at Paradise, setting a world annual snowfall record.
Mount Rainier is the single most glaciated mountain in the contiguous 48 states. So much snow falls here each
winter that it can't melt over the short summer. Each year the snow accumulates, eventually compressing into ice that adds to the mountain's glaciers. There are 26 named glaciers on Mount Rainier and another 50 unnamed ones. Among these are the largest (Emmons) and the lowest (Carbon) in the Lower 48.
These glaciers in turn feed a half-dozen rivers. The Muddy Fork of the Cowlitz River and the White River take their names from the color that the glacial flour (silt) imparts to them. Fortunately, the Carbon River is not as black as its name implies. The river instead takes its name from the coal deposits found in the area. The Nisqually, the Puyallup, and the Cowlitz all retain names given to them centuries ago by the region's American Indian tribes. All of these rivers eventually flow westward to the Puget Sound, with the exception of the Cowlitz, which flows into the Columbia River.
Surrounding the national park are four national forests: Mount Baker, Snoqualmie, Wenatchee, and Gifford Pinchot. Within these national forests are seven wilderness areas and thousands of miles of logging roads and trails.
Flora & Fauna. In a national park, where animals need not fear hunters,