Mount Rainier National Park

Sponsors: Double Decker Books

Welcome to a mountain wonderland of dense forests, dazzling wildflowers, tremendous snow fields, and rugged glaciers. Enjoy the fresh smell of trees and soil, the soothing- and sometimes deafening - sound of falling water, the refreshing cold breezes off the glaziers. And towering above all this scenic display is magnificent Mount Rainier. This is a complex landscape, but the explanation of its origins are simplicity itself: fire and ice. The mountain is a volcano born of fire and build up above the sur rounding country by repeated eruptions and successive flows of lava. It is a relatively young volcano, only about one million years old. By contrast the mountains of the Cascade Range that Mount Rainier looks down upon are at least 12 million years old, c reated by the folding, buckling, and uplifting of the Earth's surface. Mount Rainier is not an isolated volcano, for from Lassen Peak in California to Mount Garibaldi in British Columbia an entire line of volcanoes defines the north-south march of the Ca scades. These peaks dominate the skyline, ever a reminder that they are only dormant and may at any time, like Lassen Peak in 1914-21 and Mount St. Helens in 1980, erupt in fury and rage at the fragile world built by humans. One of the unexpected side ben efits of these eruptions has been the deposition of ash and pumice layers that are rich in nutrients and support the abundance of wildflowers throughout the mountainous Pacific Northwest. (Source: Mount Rainier Pamphlet, National Park Service/ U.S. Dept. of Interior )

This greatest single-peak glacial system in the United States radiates from the summit and slopes of an ancient volcano, with dense forests and sub alpine to flowered meadows below.

Established March 2,1899.

Wilderness designated Nov. 16,1988.

Acreage 235,612.50, all federal.

Wilderness area: 228,480.

For more information write to:

		Superintendent
		Mount Rainier National Park
		Ashford, WA  98304
		360-569-2211.
			or
		Tahoma Woods, Star Route
		Ashford, WA 98304
		206-569-2211
Source: Mount Rainier pamphlet U.S. National Park Service/ U.S. Dept. of Interior

Check out Mount Rainier, Active Cascade Volcano in the books section of VolcanoWorld.

To VolcanoWorld