Today, we drove out to Mount Rainier NP located in west-central Washington. Mount Rainier is the highest peak in the state of Washington at 14,410 feet and is classified as an active volcano. It is also the most glaciated peak in the lower 48 states and is the source of 6 major rivers. As we expected, and just like at Mt St Helens, only one entrance to the park is currently open, the Nisqually entrance at the southwest corner of the park. From there, the park road was only open to the Paradise visitor center - about 12 miles into the park. What really concerned me was the warning that chains are required for all vehicles traveling in the park until May 1st! I don't have chains and I didn't want to get caught in a situation where I needed them so we were a bit uncertain because of the weather forecast when we drove to the park - they were calling for periods of light snow but they caution that the weather can change abruptly at any time.
Well, we got a little lucky. The road to Paradise (the main visitor center) was open and mainly dry. Like at Crater Lake, the parking lot at Paradise had snow walls 8 or more feet high. And, it started to snow when we were there. I said "a little lucky" because while we were able to get there, the visitor center was closed - it's only open on weekends this time of year. So we walked around a little, down a closed road that was snow-covered but had been plowed a little at some point. And like at Mt Hood and Mt St Helens we couldn't see the summit due to the clouds.
Factoid: Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, and it is on the Decade Volcano list. Because of its large amount of glacial ice, Mt. Rainier could produce massive lahars that could threaten the entire Puyallup River valley, and poses a grave threat to the southern sections of the Seattle metropolitan area, a city of over 650,000 people with more than 3.7 million living in its metropolitan area.
On the return trip from Paradise, we stopped at a bridge across the Nisqually River, just a short distance down the road. In the valley up-river is the Nisqually glacier. We talked to a former guide who told us that the glacier was often visible from the bridge depending on the conditions but at this time of year all you could see was a valley full of snow.
We also stopped at Narada Falls. You couldn't really see much of the falls at all from the lot and the trail to the falls overlook was snow-covered. Didn't stop us, though. We made the short trek down the hillside to a spot opposite the falls. You can see them below.
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| At Paradise |
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| Narada Falls |
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Nisqually River Basin & Glacier
(in the far distance)
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So, all-in-all, it was a fairly short visit to Mt Rainier NP. We left mid-afternoon for the 3+ hour drive to Port Angeles, WA and our next stop - Olympic NP.
That's all for now ..... Dan
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