Answer the questions. Each one tells you why. Big and Little wrote them.
Park Quiz
Question 1 of 5
On the trail our family heard a loud, sharp whistle. Which animal makes that whistle to warn its friends?
The hoary marmot is a big, furry animal, a cousin of the woodchuck. People call it a whistler because it makes a shrill whistle to warn other marmots that a hawk or coyote is near. It lives in rocky meadows above 5,000 feet and hibernates about eight to nine months every year.
Which animal at Mount Rainier can climb steep, rocky cliffs without slipping?
Mountain goats live in the high, rocky, snowy parts of the park. Each hoof has a hard outer ring and a soft, spongy middle that grips the rock, so a goat can cross steep cliffs where almost no other big animal can go.
Mount Rainier is more than a tall mountain. What is it really?
Mount Rainier is an active volcano. It stands 14,410 feet tall, the highest peak in the Cascade Range. It last erupted about 1,000 years ago, so scientists still watch it closely today.
Mount Rainier has more glacier ice than any other mountain in the lower 48 states. About how many named glaciers does it have?
Mount Rainier has about 28 named glaciers, which are slow rivers of ice. That is more glacier ice than any other mountain in the contiguous United States. When the ice melts in summer, the cold meltwater feeds the park's rivers.
Native people have known this mountain for a very long time. What did they call it?
Long before it was called Rainier, Native people knew the mountain as Takhóma. The Cowlitz, Muckleshoot, Nisqually, Puyallup, Squaxin Island, and Yakama peoples have lived near it since time immemorial. The mountain was never lost. It was always home to the people who lived around it.