Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Rainier, established in 1899, is one of the oldest parks in the national park system.

The Park is 97 percent wilderness, covers 235,625 acres, and receives approximately 2 million visitors each year. The Park includes 26 named glaciers, 382 lakes, and 470 rivers and streams. Some of its old-growth forest is 1000 years old or older.

Mount Rainier rises to 14,410 feet and is the most prominent peak in the Cascade Range. It is an active volcano, but its last eruption was 150 years ago. Rainier is nearly 3 miles higher than the coast and 1 1/2 miles higher than adjacent mountains.

Spring comes slowly on the mountain. Some roads within the Park will not open until late June. As you can see from the pictures, there is still a great deal of snow. All but 18 miles of the Park roads are closed in the winter. 

The road to Paradise, the primary winter use area, is kept open all year.  As you can see from the last photo, that can be a challenge! Paradise receives an average annual snowfall of 680 inches. At 5400 feet, Paradise is just below the tree line.

In 1965, while Tom was a firefighter with the U. S. Forest Service, he was part of a crew that fought a forest fire in the wilderness area on the southeast slopes of the mountain.