Trail Overview

I've added a new Web page to the photo guide giving an overview of Trail Overview. The trails in Mt. Rainier NP have been around for centuries from the various Indian Tribes who visited the region for the meadows, resources, and wildlife. Almost all of these trails were for going through the NP area and to the meadows where Tribes established temporary camps for ceremonies, seasonal hunting and simply vacations.

After the Indians came the settlers looking for food and timber, and eventuall minerals. Along with them came the explorers, adventurers and climbers and then the surveyers and scientists. The first of the trails were in the southwest quadrant from Ashford to Longmire and eventually to Paradise and in the northwest quadrant, the Grindstone Trail to the upper elevations of Mt. Rainier which is now the Mowich Lake road and Spray Park trail.

From there surveyers and scientists established more extensives trails and the miners who filed claims to mineral and coal, namely in the White River and Carbon Rivers valleys. During the 1910's into the 1930's some of the trails become roads and new areas were opened with roads and later trails. During this time the Wonderland trail was fully established and improved over the decades.

Anyway, that's the Web page, which you can find on the Photo Guide.