Mount Rainier National Park Flashcards

Mount Rainier is an active volcano. It stands 14,410 feet tall, which makes it the highest peak in the Cascade Range. It last erupted about 1,000 years ago.

Mount Rainier has about 28 named glaciers, which are slow rivers of ice. That is more glacier ice than any other mountain in the lower 48 states. In summer the melting ice feeds the park's cold rivers.

Paradise is a meadow high on the mountain's south side, about 5,400 feet up. So much snow falls here that the meadows stay buried most of the year, then burst with wildflowers like purple lupine in late summer.

Myrtle Falls is a short, paved walk from Paradise. The creek drops into a rocky gorge, with Mount Rainier standing right behind the falling water.

The Skyline Trail is the big loop out of Paradise. The whole loop is about 5.5 miles and climbs around 1,700 feet, so it passes wildflower meadows, waterfalls, and close-up views of the glaciers.

The hoary marmot is a big, furry animal that lives in the rocky meadows. It makes a loud whistle to warn its friends about danger, and it sleeps, or hibernates, for eight to nine months each year.

Mountain goats live high on the rocky, snowy parts of Mount Rainier. Their special hooves grip the rock, so they can climb steep cliffs where other big animals cannot go.

Long before it was named Rainier, Native people called the mountain Takhóma. The Cowlitz, Muckleshoot, Nisqually, Puyallup, Squaxin Island, and Yakama peoples have lived here since time immemorial. The mountain was never lost to the people who lived around it.