Mount Rainier National Park Bingo

Scan the high crags and snowfields above Paradise for small white dots that move.

It is one of the best climbers on Earth. Each hoof has a hard rim around a soft, rubbery pad that grips rock like a climbing shoe, and the two toes can spread apart, so a mountain goat can stand on a ledge no wider than its foot and climb slopes far too steep for a person.

Listen for a loud, sharp whistle, then find a big silver-gray body sunning on a boulder.

It is nicknamed 'the whistler.' When a hoary marmot spots an eagle, coyote, or hiker, it gives a loud, sharp whistle that carries across the meadow to warn the other marmots, who dash for their burrows. A whole Canadian mountain, Whistler, is named for the sound.

Get a photo the day Rainier shows itself, because most days it hides in cloud.

Listen for a squeaky call in the talus, then look for little hay piles drying among the rocks.

A pika does not hibernate. Instead it spends all summer clipping plants and piling them under rocks to dry into haypiles, then eats from those piles all winter under the snow.

Gray bird flashing black-and-white wings at the tree line around Paradise and Sunrise.

One nutcracker can hide up to about 30,000 pine seeds in a single fall, in thousands of little buried stashes, and find most of them again months later under the snow. Its memory for hiding spots is one of the best known in the animal world.

The other kind of photo: catch the moment a cloud rolls in and swallows the summit.

Deep-blue crested jay, bold and common around picnic areas and trailheads.

The tall black crest on its head goes up and down like a mood flag. It stands up tall when the jay is excited or alarmed and lies flat when the bird is calm.

Golden, trumpet-shaped mushroom on the damp forest floor in late summer and fall. Look, don't pick.

A chanterelle does not have thin, flat gills under its cap like many mushrooms. Instead it has blunt, forked ridges that run part way down the stem. Knowing that helps tell it apart from its poisonous look-alikes.

Glacier-fed rivers like the Nisqually run gray with ground-up rock. Photograph the milky color.

The 14,410-foot glaciated volcano at the center of the park, out only on a clear day.

A 14,410-foot active stratovolcano and the most heavily glaciated peak in the contiguous United States: NPS counts 28 major glaciers covering about 30 square mi…

Roadside lakes on Stevens Canyon Road that mirror the peak on a still, windless morning.

Roadside lakes on Stevens Canyon Road that mirror the mountain's south face on a still morning, with no hike required: the pullout sits about 1.3 miles east of…

Late summer fills the Paradise and Sunrise meadows with lupine and paintbrush. Get in close on one.

The lowest-reaching glacier in the Lower 48, down in the park's rainy northwest corner.

The glacier with the lowest terminus altitude (3,600 feet per NPS) of any in the contiguous 48 states, fed by the mountain's wet northwest side.

An island of thousand-year-old cedars and firs in the Ohanapecosh River, near Stevens Canyon.

A stand of old-growth Douglas-fir, western redcedar, and western hemlock on an island in the Ohanapecosh River, reached by a suspension footbridge in the park's…

Short, steep path off the Paradise road to a waterfall on the Paradise River.

A waterfall on the Paradise River that drops beside the road to Paradise, only about 150 feet from the pavement, the largest fall reachable by car in the park.

Paradise stays buried in snow into late summer. Find a leftover patch and pack a snowball in July.

Walk the first paved mile of the Skyline Trail to Myrtle Falls with the mountain behind it.

The first paved mile of the Skyline Trail leads from Paradise to Myrtle Falls with the mountain behind it, suitable for strollers with help.

Alpine lake at Chinook Pass, ringed with wildflowers in late summer.

A wildflower-ringed alpine lake on the east side at Chinook Pass, beside SR 410, with a short loop circling the water.

Find one of the huge old cedars or firs in the low forest and count how many kids reach around it.

The subalpine meadow hub at 5,400 feet, with the visitor center and the Skyline trailheads.

The subalpine meadow at 5,400 feet on the south side, and the park's primary destination: it holds the Jackson Visitor Center, Paradise Inn, and the Skyline tra…

The highest spot you can drive to, 6,400 feet up on the northeast side, with a straight-on view.

At 6,400 feet, Sunrise is the highest point reachable by road in the park, on the northeast side at Yakima Park.

Pick up the booklet at the Jackson Visitor Center at Paradise and finish it to get sworn in.

The park's old headquarters and the Trail of the Shadows, open year-round.

The park's first developed area, on the road in from the Nisqually (southwest) entrance and the original headquarters.

The big 1917 log lodge at Paradise. Step inside for the stone fireplaces and cedar-shake ceiling.

A cedar-log lodge that opened in 1917 (built starting in 1916) and a National Historic Landmark, at 5,400 feet beside the Paradise meadows with stone fireplaces…