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Meadows on south side of Mount Rainier are No. 1 tourist spot in park, offering grand views whether covered in flowers or snow
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, Jul 27, 2008
ASHFORD, WASH.: We were on a mountain pilgrimage to Paradise.
That's where you will find the flower-strewn meadows at 5,420 feet on the southern flank of Mount Rainier, a big and imposing mountain that is the centerpiece of Mount Rainier National Park.
Paradise, at the end of a long, winding road, is the No. 1 tourist destination in the park.
Martha Longmire, who helped found the first hotel in the area, had once proclaimed of the mountain meadows: ''This must be what paradise is like.''
Naturalist John Muir proclaimed the meadows at Paradise to be the most magnificent he had ever seen.
Our visit to Paradise in late June found no colorful wildflowers — just 11 feet of snow and awesome views of the upper mountain.
Mount Rainier, located in Seattle's backyard, typically gets 500 inches of snow a year. This year, the mountain got 950 inches of snow.
The Rainier record is 1,122 inches of snow in 1971-72.
The mountain was hammered by moisture-laden storms off the Pacific Ocean that dropped lots of snow at higher elevations.
The winter of 2007-08 continued into June with cold, wet, snowy weather, even at the park's lower elevations.
Paradise typically gets 126 inches of snow a year; Longmire, at 2,700 feet elevation, 87 inches. But this year was even snowier.
Much of the park remains locked in snow. Snow will be on many trails into August. Then the snow will resume in the fall.
After short hikes, we encountered heavy, wipe-out-all-signs-of-the-trail snow on some low-elevation trails near Longmire in the park's southwest corner.
Park rangers were advising visitors of the bigger-than-usual avalanche threat and suggestions are posted on using bamboo wands to mark your trails in the snow.
It's hard not to be impressed by Mount Rainier, a 14,410-foot mountain filled with glaciers, forests, waterfalls, big trees, mountain lakes, steep-walled valleys, year-round snowfields and trails.
It's a park that is filled with traffic-stopping vistas. The area shows a different character in different parts of the park.
But Paradise is the heart of the park. Despite the snowfall, Paradise, the uber-busy tourist center, was hopping. Parking lots were filled at the Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center and the historic Paradise Inn, newly refurbished.
The inn, built in 1916-17, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
A new visitor center, under
construction, is scheduled to open in October.
Visitors to Paradise were snowboarding, sledding, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, as well as hiking and mountain climbing.
The road from the park's Nisqually Entrance at the southwest corner of the park to Paradise is open year-round. It is plowed daily. It is also the park's busiest entrance.
The drive from Nisqually to Paradise will take you to Narada Falls, a 168-foot-high waterfall on the Paradise River, and Kautz Creek, which was partially buried in a volcanic mud flow in 1947. There is also an impressive vista up Nisqually Creek. You start in lowland forests and begin to climb the mountain.
From Paradise, the mountain doesn't seem that big. It's hard to believe that you are looking at nearly 9,000 feet of mountain above you.
The Mountain
In the Pacific Northwest, Rainier is known simply as the Mountain, and that's spoken in reverential tones.
It is the iconic, massive and hulking peak that dominates the Cascade Mountain Range for more than a hundred miles.
You can spend days or weeks in Seattle — about 60 miles away — and never see the top of the mountain through the gray clouds.
When it appears, the locals simply say, ''The Mountain is out.''
It is not the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states. It is fifth highest outside of Alaska. The 500,000-year-old stratovolcano last erupted in the early 1800s.
Each year, nearly 2 million visitors come to the 235,625-acre park, the fifth-oldest national park in the United States.
Rainier is a park that is often crowded on weekends in the summer and the winter. Parking can be a big problem, especially at Paradise, on weekends year-round. Parking is also limited at many trailheads.
Hiking the park
The park features 260 miles of trails and is very popular with backpackers. About 97 percent of the park is federally designated wilderness. Much of it is accessible only via trail; the park has more miles of trails than roads.
The most popular trail is the 93-mile Wonderland Trail that circles the mountain. It is a trek of 10 to 12 days with a vertical gain-drop of 23,000 feet.
The Wonderland is regularly named the best trail in the United States by Backpacker magazine and its readers.
Most backpackers arrive in July and August, when the park has melted out and the bridges have been fixed after high-water runoff.
Two spots that are definitely worth hiking are the Grove of the Patriarchs, a 1.5-mile round trip to old-growth forest near Ohanapecosh in the park's southeast corner, and the Nisqually Vista Trail, a 1.2-mile loop above Paradise with glacier views.
The grove of old trees is tucked on an island in the Ohanapecosh River. Some of the western red cedar, Douglas fir and western hemlock are from 500 to 1,000 years old. Some are 40 feet in circumference.
The canopy towers overhead some 200 feet above the wooden boardwalk. It provokes a cathedral-like aura and visitors talk in awed whispers.
Downstream, Silver Falls is a waterfall with a 40-foot drop in a rocky gorge with mosses, ferns and lichen.
Glacial sites
The Nisqually Glacier is one of 26 named glaciers in the park, but it is the most accessible. The glacier is four miles long above Paradise and moves 6 to 12 inches a day.
The Carbon River Road with its lush rain forest in the park's northwest corner is also open in the winter. But other roads in the park are typically closed during the winter.
Sunrise at 6,400 feet is the highest point to which you can drive in the park. It is in the northeast corner. From July to late September, it typically features colorful meadows, vistas of Emmons Glacier and far-away Cascade peaks. It was, of course, snowed in during our visit.
Emmons Glacier, 4 square miles in size, is the biggest glacier in the United States outside Alaska.
In fact, Rainier's glaciers cover 35 square miles atop the mountain and some are 700 feet thick, the most glaciated peak outside Alaska.
Those glaciers and the mountain's steep slopes are what make Rainier appealing to mountaineers.
Permits are needed to hike above 10,000 feet or on the glaciers.
Rainier is a serious mountain. It is tough and dangerous. About half of the park's 9,000 mountaineers make it to the summit annually.
The best climbing is from spring to mid-July. Most climbing is done early in the day, when the snow is hard and safe.
The most common Rainier climb is an 18,000-footascent-descent from Paradise that takes 18 hours.
Guide services offer climbing instruction, two-day summit climbs and five-day workshops.
You can check with Rainier Mountaineering Inc. (888-892-5462 or 360-569-2227), Alpine Ascents International (206-378-1927), International Mountain Guides (360-569-2609) and Whittaker Mountaineering (800-238-5756).
Where to stay
The mountain was named in 1792 by Capt. George Vancouver for his friend, British Rear Admiral Peter Rainier.
The Puyallup Indians called the peak Tahoma, meaning ''mother of water'' from the streams it spawned.
The park has four visitor centers: at Paradise, Longmire, Sunrise and Ohanapecosh.
There are five park campgrounds with 600 sites.
The fee to enter the park is $15 per vehicle. That's good for seven days.
There are two lodges in the park: the Paradise Inn (May to September) and the National Park Inn (year-round) at Longmire.
For park information, contact Mount Rainier National Park, Ashford, WA 98304; 360-569-2177 or http://www.nps.gov/mora.
For in-park lodging, contact Mount Rainier Guest Services, P.O. Box 108, Ashford, WA 98304; 360-569-2275 or http://www.guestservices.com/rainier.
Lodging and restaurants are limited in Ashford, the community that is just outside the park's southwest entrance. Check with the Mount Rainier Visitor Association, 877-617-9550 or http://www.mt-rainier.com.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
ASHFORD, WASH.: We were on a mountain pilgrimage to Paradise.
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