Two weeks of warm weather hasn’t done much to defrost trails at Mount Rainier National Park, but there are still places to get in a hike or check out wildflowers.
Paradise on the south side of the mountain is setting records for August snow depth. On Aug. 7, it recorded 44 inches of snow, surpassing the record of 40 inches set in 1974. The snow depth has been above record levels ever since.
“If you’re going to have snow, you might as well set records,” said ranger Davis Root. “People are still surprised how much snow we have at Paradise.”
As of Aug. 9, Paradise reported 907 inches of snow for 2011, one of its top five snow years, according to the blog maintained by the park’s climbing rangers. The snowline is just below Paradise at about 5,000 feet, Root said, but there are still hazards on many trails.
Ice axes and crampons are no longer recommended to make the short hike to Comet Falls. “But there is snow and ice danger right above it, so we can not recommend going any farther,” Root said.
Because of the snow, only two hikers have completed the 93-mile Wonderland Trail this summer. The east side of the trail between Summer Land and Nickel Creek is still buried by snow, Root said.
“I talked to two hikers just the other day who had to turn around because of the snow,” Root said.
“Sunrise is the place to be,” said Root, who added that the area on the northeast side of the mountain is almost completely melted out as well.
Berkley Park near Sunrise is also a good place to view wildflowers, Root said. Wildflowers are also blooming along Stevens Canyon Drive.
NIGHT SKY VIEWING
Don West-Wilke, a Mount Rainier volunteer astronomer-interpreter, is hosting night sky viewing Thursdays through Sundays through Sept. 4. View the skies through his telescope starting at 10 p.m. He will be set up in Longmire in front of the National Park Inn on Thursday nights, in front of the Paradise Jackson Visitors Center on Saturdays, and Sundays at the Backbone Ridge pull-out off Stevens Canyon Road. Call 360-569-2211, ext. 6577.
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK
The Olympic National Park’s website, nps.gov/olym, is helping people follow the Elwha River Restoration project with a blog focusing on the removal of the Elwha Dam and a five-minute film about the restoration project. The park also is working to install webcams along the Elwha River by the middle of September. For direct links to these and other Elwha River restoration information, go to blog.thenewstribune.com/adventure.
Craig Hill: 253-597-8497
craig.hill@thenewstribune.com
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