Mount Rainer

Mount Rainer is a massive stratovolcano in Washington.  It is the highest mountain in Washington and the highest peak in the Cascade Mountains.  It has a summit elevation of 14,411 ft. It is considered as one of the most dangerous volcanos in the world and is on the Decade Volcano list.  That list is a list of 16 volcanos that will do the most destruction if one erupts.  Mount Rainer has a large amount of glacial ice and could potentially produce massive lahers, mud flow or debris flow, that would threaten the whole Puyallup river valley.  In other words, it would take out every town and city from Mt Rainer all the way to Tacoma, WA.  On clear days Mt Rainer is a backdrop in Seattle and most of the Seattle area.  On extremely clear days Mt Rainer can be see from as far away as Portland, OR and Victoria, BC.  Mt Rainer has 26 glaciers and 36 square miles of permanent snowfields and glaciers.  It is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 States.  The summit is topped by two volcanic craters each more that 1000 ft in diameter.  The larger east crater overlaps the west crater.  Mt Rainer is so massive that is actually produces its own weather.  On the west side of the mountain 90 inches of rain falls annually.
Mount Rainer National Park was established on March 2, 1899.  It was the fifth National Park and the first to be established with a National forest.  It has 236,381 acres that includes Mt. Rainer.  97% of the park is preserved for wilderness.  When the roadways through the park was being designed the route chosen was not for the easiest way to pave a road but it was designed to see Mt Rainer as much as possible during the drive.  The engineers did a great job that way because as you drive through the park you do see Mt Rainer most of the time.  A convertible with the top down would be the ideal way of traveling through the park. The park has several campgrounds and two inns.  The National Park Inn in the Longmire area is a large log cabin inn  and some of the buildings around the inn are the first to be built in the park.  The Paradise Inn is a larger inn and sits right on the foothills of Mt Rainer.  It was called Paradise because one of the family members of the first park ranger took a look at the flowered meadow below Mt Rainer and said, "this is paradise".  This part of the park is the most visited area of the park.
Mt Rainer is beautiful and every view is amazing.  I took several pictures, over 300, and I still would take more.  It is huge and we hiked as far up the mountain as we could go without a climbing permit.  The closer we got the more beautiful it was.  The hike going up the summit was a killer, for me, but I am so glad we did it.  There was smoke from the fires in eastern Washington that created a haze for most of the day but by mid afternoon the smoke and haze cleared and we got some great views.  What an experience of a lifetime!  We will come back to visit Mt Rainer a few more times.  We would like to see it in every season and actually do some of the trails in the park.  As far as climbing the glaciers, I don't think it will ever happen but you never know.  Check another one off my bucket list!