Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Day 65 of 117 on our “Go West, Young Man” Two Lane Adventure – Thursday 8/30/18


Today we took the 45 mile drive into see Mt Rainier. I should talk about the mountain’s history first, but I am going to wait, until later. It was easy to get there, we had to follow WA 410, also known as Mather Memorial Parkway toward the park.

Created in 1931, this paved two-lane classic Cascades drive along Highway 410 from Naches to the eastern edge of Mount Rainier National Park presents majestic views of Mount Rainier and surrounding peaks. Well, it should … but it was cold, very overcast and foggy today! The road, completed in 1932, was renamed Mather Memorial Parkway after Stephen T. Mather, the first director of the National Park Service. Mather had spearheaded the plan to preserve a timber belt along the highway not only in the park but also in the adjacent national forests.

We stopped at a vista that overlooks both the William O Douglas and the Norse Peak Wilderness areas. Approximately 40% of Wenatchee National Forest is administrated as wilderness. The Pacific Crest Trail allows hiking access to most of these forests. The wilderness was first identified as unique in 1946, but was not officially designated until 1984.  

At this overlook, we found some ripe mountain ash berries, they really are the color of the Red Busses we took at Glacier National Park!

We turned onto WA 123, also known as Cayuse Pass and were soon greeted by the Mt Rainier National Park sign, over the road at Chinook Pass, this is the northeast entrance to the park.

As we continued on this road, we continued to ascend and the more we ascended, the foggier it became.

We entered the park at the Stevens Canyon entrance. We are heading for Paradise. We have heard it is famous for its glorious views and wildflower meadows. When James Longmire's daughter-in-law, Martha, first saw this site, she exclaimed, "Oh, what a paradise” and the name stuck. It is home to the park's main visitor center. The new Paradise Jackson Visitor Center, is located in an area that receives on average 650 inches of snow a year. Let’s hope we don’t see any today!

The new Paradise Jackson Visitor Center offers general information, exhibits, the new park film, guided ranger programs, gift store and cafeteria. We packed a picnic lunch, but it was too cold to eat outside, so we enjoyed the warmth of the cafeteria.

We were able to see the Tatoosh Range well from up here, but the fog came in and out against this range too .... but Mt Rainier is not visible ... :(

There are several trails that originate from here. We took a peek, but did not do any hiking. We did find this cool quote, engraved on the steps.

We also saw this skier heading back to the Paradise Jackson Visitor Center and he had snow skis, boots and poles … He must have had to go pretty high to find snow … he might have even been skiing on a glacier?!

The historic Paradise Inn, offers lodging, a dining room and a gift shop. The Paradise Inn is usually open from May to early-October and closed in the winter. The Guide House houses the Paradise Climbing Information Center, where visitors can obtain climbing permits and hiking and back country camping information.

To leave the Paradise area, we followed a one-way road, Paradise Valley Road, through a beautiful meadow filled valley. There was an unexpected waterfall, flowing into the valley, which we were able to see.

We convinced Charlie to head to Longmire, to hopefully catch a glimpse of Mt Rainier, since all efforts so far have been futile. With the establishment of Mount Rainier National Park in 1899, Longmire became park headquarters. The site had previously served as James Longmire's homestead, lodging, and mineral springs resort. Although park headquarters are no longer at Longmire, the original 1916 headquarters building houses a museum that tells the story of the early days of the park. All of Longmire is now designated a national historic district.

Nisqually Glacier is one of the larger glaciers on the southwestern face of Mt Rainier. The glacier is one of the most easily viewed on the mountain. The glacier has had periods of advance and retreat since 1850 when it was much more extensive. Nisqually Glacier is the source of the Nisqually River. We wondered what all the downed trees were doing in the glacier path. Historically, glacial outburst floods, torrential rains, and stream capture have caused small to moderate size debris flows. Most occur in drainage systems with large glaciers.

The National Park Inn, has a restaurant and gift shop, is usually open daily, all year. We sat on the front porch of the National Park Inn, staring up at as much of Mt Rainier as we could see. It took you back in time to the early 1900's. It feels like few things have altered since then, but this simple, rustic building conceals the many changes of its history. The Inn we see today was not the first or even second building constructed in Longmire for hotel lodging.

James Longmire built the first accommodations across the street, about where the Trail of Shadows is now, as a health resort. His guest cabins were open for business by 1889, and with help from his family, James added a simple, rustic, two-story hotel. Over the years, his son, added on to the hotel as well as built bath houses, barns and more. He called the expanded hotel the Longmire Springs Hotel but kept the informal, family atmosphere.

Because the Longmires built on land they patented as a mining claim, the newly formed park management could say little about how the hotel looked or was run. Over the years, there were arguments about appearances and operations so the park offered to buy the land and buildings in 1902. The Longmires refused. To introduce competition, the park leased land across the road from the Longmires to the Tacoma & Eastern Railroad Company so they could build a new hotel, the National Park Inn. The new, second, and more elegant hotel opened in 1906.

The National Park Inn and Annex were run as one hotel until 1926 when the original National Park Inn burned down, leaving the clubhouse and Annex. The Annex soon became known as the National Park Inn. Other changes were happening too. After lab tests confirmed the mineral springs were not medicinal, the RNPC stopped advertising the Longmire hotel as a health resort. The National Park Service eventually bought out the Longmires in 1939. Today, when strolling through the area, little remains of their health resort except the stonework around a few springs and the reconstructed cabin where Elcaine Longmire’s cabin once stood. All that remains of the hotels is the Annex, now the National Park Inn, which started life across the road. The clubhouse, the oldest building in Longmire, is now the gift shop next to the National Park Inn. Visiting Longmire today, it’s sometimes hard to imagine the many changes that have happened here.

Ascending to 14,410 feet above sea level, Mt Rainier stands as an icon in the Washington landscape. An active volcano, Mt Rainier is the most glaciated peak in the contiguous US. It spawns five major rivers.

The mountain captivated early European and American visitors. Captain George Vancouver of the British Royal Navy observed the mountain while surveying the Pacific coast in 1792 and decided to name the mountain after his friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. Mountaineers made some of the first non-native incursions on land, eager to summit the iconic peak. PB Van Trump and his friend General Hazard Stevens made the first recorded climb of the mountain in 1870 and others would soon follow. In 1883 James Longmire, on his way down the mountain, found a mineral spring and opened a hotel and spa there not long after. The entrepreneurial spirit and scenic appreciation for the mountain that drove Longmire would emerge as key themes in the future development of Mt Rainier National Park.

We stopped at Christine Falls. It provided us with exceptional viewing of a powerful falls. This signature view of the lower falls is framed by the historic, arching Christine Falls Bridge. The falls drop 70 feet total, broken into drops of 33 and 37 feet respectively and are notorious for being nearly impossible to photograph together.

On our way back to Naches, we stopped at Inspiration Point. It was a large pullout that offered us another chance to get a glimpse of Mt Rainier and the Tatoosh Range.

Narada Falls was the last waterfalls we stopped at. It is said to be the most popular, because the Mount Rainier Highway crosses the falls between its two tiers. 


The waterfall drops 188 feet in two tiers of 168 feet and 20 feet (6.1 m). The upper tier is a horsetail that falls in several strands down a nearly sheer cliff, into a canyon that is perpendicular to it. The lower tier is a much smaller plunge. During the winter, the upper falls freezes and becomes a sheer 150 feet of icicles, which attracts many ice climbers.


We also stopped at Reflection Lakes. These sub-alpine lakes offered us some stunning reflections, just none of them were of Mt Rainier!

As we were leaving the park, we were welcomed back into the Wenatchee National Forest.

Another great day with Yankee RV Tours!

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