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Mount Rainier National Park Paradise

March 6, 2012 by · Comments Off on Mount Rainier National Park Paradise 

Mount Rainier National Park Paradise, Mount Rainier National Park is a United States National Park located in southeast Pierce County and northeast Lewis County in Washington state. It was one of the US’s earliest National Parks, having been established on March 2, 1899 as the fifth national park in the United States.

The park contains 368 square miles (950 km2) including all of Mount Rainier, a 14,410-foot (4,392 m) stratovolcano. The mountain rises abruptly from the surrounding land with elevations in the park ranging from 1,600 feet (490 m) to over 14,000 feet (4,300 m). The highest point in the Cascade Range, around it are valleys, waterfalls, subalpine wildflower meadows, old growth forest and more than 25 glaciers.

The volcano is often shrouded in clouds that dump enormous amounts of rain and snow on the peak every year and hide it from the crowds that head to the park on weekends.

Mount Rainier is circled by the Wonderland Trail and is covered by several glaciers and snowfields totaling some 35 square miles (91 km2). Carbon Glacier is the largest glacier by volume in the continental United States, while Emmons Glacier is the largest glacier by area. About 1.8 million people visit Mount Rainier National Park each year. Mount Rainier is a popular peak for mountain climbing with some 10,000 attempts per year with approximately 50% making it to the summit.

The park contains outstanding subalpine meadows and 91,000 acres (370 km2) of old growth forests.

Mount Rainier

January 2, 2012 by · Comments Off on Mount Rainier 

Mount Rainier, A Mount Rainier National Park ranger was fatally shot following a New Year’s Day traffic stop, and the 368-square-mile park in Washington state was closed as dozens of officers searched for the armed gunman over snowy and rugged terrain.

Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said late Sunday afternoon Benjamin Colton Barnes, a 24-year-old believed to have survivalist skills, was a “strong person of interest” in the slaying of Margaret Anderson. A parks spokesman said Barnes was an Iraq war veteran, and the mother of his child had alleged he suffered from post-traumatic stress following his deployments. Authorities recovered his vehicle, which had weapons and body armor inside, Troyer said.

Barnes was also a suspect in the early Sunday morning shooting of four people at a house party south of Seattle, police said.

Authorities believed the gunman was still in the woods, with weapons. They asked people to stay away from the park, and for those already inside to leave.

“We do have a very hot and dangerous situation,” Troyer said.

Early Monday, dozens of tourists who were stranded at a park visitors center began leaving under a safety escort.

Around 12:30 a.m. PST, officers used the cover of darkness to begin evacuating some of the 125 people who had remained inside a visitors center for their safety amid the manhunt.

Crews had initially planned to keep everyone quarantined in a basement with guards. But Troyer said it was later determined to be “better to do it under the cover of darkness than daylight.”

All the visitors are expected to be out by 4 a.m., if not sooner.

Tactical responders wearing crampons and snowshoes were pursuing what appeared to be the gunman’s tracks in the snow, Troyer said. Those tracks went into creeks and other waterways, making it more difficult for crews to follow.

“He’s intentionally trying to get out of the snow,” Troyer said.

Meanwhile, an aircraft with heat-sensing capabilities was scanning overhead, Troyer said.

Barnes was involved in a custody dispute in Tacoma in July 2011, during which the toddler’s mother sought a temporary restraining order against him, according to court documents. In an affidavit, the woman wrote that Barnes was suicidal and possibly suffered from PTSD after deploying to Iraq in 2007-2008. She said he gets easily irritated, angry and depressed and keeps an arsenal of weapons in his home.

The park would remain closed Monday, officials announced late Sunday.

Jason Simpson, 29, of Kent, said his parents were still trapped at the visitor’s center after traveling to the mountain for a day hike. His parents were able to make a call explaining their situation, and Simpson drove to the park entrance to wait.

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