Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Rainier National Park covers 236,381 acres in western Washington, roughly 60 miles southeast of Seattle and centered on an active stratovolcano at 14,410 feet. The mountain carries 26 named glaciers totaling about 35 square miles of ice, more glacial coverage than any other peak in the contiguous United States, and feeds five major river systems draining toward Puget Sound. Four distinct areas give visitors very different experiences: Paradise on the south slope at 5,400 feet for wildflower meadows and summit access, Sunrise on the northeast at 6,400 feet for glacier close-ups, Carbon River in the northwest for old-growth rainforest, and Longmire at the Nisqually entrance for history and forest walks. The park ranks 20th in annual visitation among the 63 national parks, drawing about 1.6 million visitors per year with the heaviest concentration in July and August at Paradise.

Subalpine wildflower meadows at Paradise, where more than 50 species of wildflowers bloom in dense carpets from mid-July through mid-August across slopes visible from the historic Paradise Inn, drawing visitors from across the Pacific Northwest for the annual bloom.
The 26 named glaciers that cover the mountain's flanks, including Emmons Glacier on the northeast face, the largest glacier by area in the contiguous United States at about 4.3 square miles, and Nisqually Glacier on the south face, one of the most studied glaciers in North America.
The Wonderland Trail, a 93-mile loop that circumnavigates the entire mountain through forest, meadow, and alpine terrain, requiring 7 to 14 days and a backcountry permit, considered one of the premier long-distance backpacking routes in the country.
Mountaineering on the summit route, which draws roughly 10,000 attempted ascents per year via the Disappointment Cleaver and other routes; about half succeed, making Rainier one of the most frequently climbed glaciated peaks in the world.

Nisqually Entrance (main, year-round): From Seattle or Tacoma, take I-5 south to Hwy 7 south at Spanaway, then continue on Hwy 7 to Hwy 706 east into the park. Driving time from Seattle is about 2 hours; from Tacoma about 1.5 hours. This entrance is open year-round and gives the most direct access to Longmire and Paradise.

White River Entrance (Sunrise): From Seattle, take I-5 south briefly, then Hwy 164 south to Hwy 410 southeast through Enumclaw to the White River entrance. Driving time from Seattle is about 2 hours. This entrance is open late June through mid-October and provides direct access to Sunrise and the northeast park.

Carbon River Entrance (northwest): From Tacoma, take Hwy 167 south to Hwy 410 east, then south on Hwy 165 to the Carbon River road. Driving time from Tacoma is about 1.5 hours. The Carbon River road beyond the entrance gate is closed to vehicles; a 5-mile walk or bicycle ride is required to reach the campground and rainforest.

By air: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) is roughly 60 miles from the Nisqually entrance and is served by all major domestic and many international carriers. Car rental is the most practical option; no direct public transit runs to the park. Some seasonal shuttle services operate from Ashford on weekends in summer; check the NPS website for current schedules.

Mount Rainier is a stratovolcano built over the past half-million years from repeated eruptions of andesite and dacite lava on top of older Tertiary volcanic and sedimentary rock. The Cascades are a volcanic arc driven by the subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate beneath the North American Plate, and Rainier sits near the center of that arc, with active or recently active volcanoes from Lassen in northern California to Mount Baker in northern Washington. The current cone is geologically young, built largely within the last 100,000 years, but the underlying basement rocks are tens of millions of years old.

The mountain's most significant geological hazard is not a future eruption but a lahar, a volcanic mudflow formed when heat or eruption rapidly melts glacial ice and mobilizes saturated debris into the river valleys below. About 5,600 years ago the eastern flank collapsed in the Osceola Mudflow, one of the largest lahars in geologic history, which traveled more than 60 miles to the present location of the cities of Auburn and Kent near Puget Sound. A smaller event, the Electron Mudflow, traveled down the Puyallup River valley about 500 to 600 years ago. The populated river valleys below the mountain remain in lahar hazard zones today.

The 26 named glaciers covering about 35 square miles are a direct result of the mountain's extreme elevation combined with the heavy precipitation of the maritime Pacific Northwest. Emmons Glacier on the northeast face is the largest by area in the contiguous United States at about 4.3 square miles. Nisqually Glacier on the south face has been monitored since the 1850s and has retreated roughly 2 miles since then, with intermittent advances during cooler decades. Most of Rainier's glaciers have lost significant mass since the late 19th century, a trend that has accelerated since the 1980s.

Volcanic fumaroles remain active in steam caves near the summit crater, where geothermal heat keeps internal temperatures above freezing even at 14,000 feet. This warm zone is how summit climbers overnight in a location surrounded by glacial ice at extremely high elevation. The summit ice caves are one of the few places in the world where an active volcano and a permanent icecap occupy the same summit.

Hoary marmots are the most conspicuous large animals in Rainier's subalpine zones, sitting upright on boulders in the Paradise and Sunrise meadows throughout summer and giving a loud two-note whistle when alarmed. They hibernate from approximately September through May and are at peak weight, fattened on wildflowers, in late August. American pika occupy the talus slopes at higher elevations and are often heard calling before they are seen; they do not hibernate and spend summer and fall cutting and caching vegetation under rocks. Mountain goats, descendants of animals introduced in 1925, move through the high ridges and are regularly seen from Spray Park and the Sunrise area.

Black bears live throughout the park's forested zones from the valley floor to about 6,000 feet. They are most active at dawn and dusk and most commonly spotted in berry-heavy areas in late summer and early fall. Roosevelt elk and Columbian black-tailed deer use the lower valley forests and meadow edges, particularly in the Carbon River and Ohanapecosh areas. The park's streams and rivers support cutthroat trout and the American dipper, a small bird that walks underwater along stream bottoms searching for invertebrates.

White-tailed ptarmigan spend the year at high elevations, turning white in winter and mottled brown in summer; they are often approached closely because of their lack of wariness around people. The northern spotted owl inhabits the old-growth forest in the Carbon River area and lower valley zones. Steller's jay is the most frequently heard bird in the forested campgrounds, and Clark's nutcracker appears in the subalpine zone in late summer, caching whitebark pine seeds. Bald eagles fish the rivers in fall during salmon runs.

Nisqually, Puyallup, Yakama, Cowlitz, and Klickitat peoples have traveled to and around the mountain for thousands of years, using the lower forests and river valleys for hunting, fishing, and gathering, and regarding the summit with spiritual significance. The mountain is called "Tahoma" or a variant spelling in several of these languages, a name still widely used in the region. These communities did not permanently occupy the high slopes; the mountain was a landmark and a resource, not a dwelling place.

Captain George Vancouver of the British Royal Navy was the first European to record a sighting of the mountain, in 1792, naming it after Rear Admiral Peter Rainier, a colleague who never visited the Pacific Northwest. American and British explorers mapped the mountain from a distance in the early 1800s. The first confirmed ascent of the summit was made on August 17, 1870 by Hazard Stevens and Philemon Beecher Van Trump, guided partway up by a Yakama man named Sluiskin who showed them the route to the snowfields. James Longmire, who joined an early summit party in 1883, discovered mineral hot springs on the mountain's southwestern slope the same year and began developing a trail and tourist accommodation there; the Longmire area retains his name and several of his era's buildings.

Congress established Mount Rainier National Park on March 2, 1899, making it the fifth national park in the United States. President McKinley signed the bill. The park's early infrastructure was built largely during the 1910s and 1920s: Paradise Inn opened in 1917, Sunrise Road was completed in 1931, and the Wonderland Trail was substantially complete by 1915. The park became an important mountaineering training ground; the Rainier Mountaineering Inc. guide service has operated summit climbs from the park for decades, and the mountain served as an acclimatization site for military and expedition mountaineers from World War II onward.