SW area photo guide

I've developed the first (draft) version of the photo guide for the southwest area. It's available there or from the overview guide. You're welcome to send me your comments, suggestions, questions or whatever, preferably positively.

I'm using this area guide as the format for the other four areas (see overview). I still want to produce better maps, but am struggling finding good on-line topographic maps. Right now I'm using National Geographic's Topo software of USGS topographic maps and available NPS maps. They may have to do for now while I work on the other areas, which are more important to get the first draft by Memorial Day weekend.

While working on this area photo guide I thought of another map Web page, one with the different places for the different types of photos you can get, such as vistas, landscape, river, forest, etc. It's just a thought for now which I'll explore, and if you would like to see that too with the photo guide, please let me know.

Well, that's it for this round. The next area will be the Paradise (center) area of the NP. After that the northwest (Carbon River and Mowich Lake) area. Then the two eastern areas since I'm less familar with those areas. And maybe I'll find some better maps.

Still no guns in NP

The Obama administration is reviewing the rules allowing guns in National Parks, a change implemented last year by the Bush administration under pressure fron the NRA and some Senators in Congress. A judge set aside the rule pending a full environment review, restoring the previous 26-year rule of no guns allowed in NP's except unloaded and stored in a locked place in the vehicle.

This is good news, as I wrote about last summer, see essay. I'm still against guns in NP's for the safety of visitors and the NPS employees and seasonal rangers. No one wants to hike well off the road in fear of encountering someone who has and may decide to use a gun. Yeah, that's a rarity, but the rule prevents the potential. And there are some NP's where gun owners would love to go into the backcountry to use their weapons.

That's the last thing our NP needs, people shooting at the wilderness, wildlife and even maybe people in the backcountry. And no backcountry ranger wants to consider the reality of a confrontation with any of these folks or a hiker who has a gun. Freedom and safety in NP's reside in a no-gun policy, especially for large number of foreign visitors. They need a place to experience America's wilderness in safety.

The NRA cites the wrong reasons the Bush rule was fair and proper. It's not about safety for people to have guns. NP's have the lowest rates of assaults and murders of any place in the US. And NP's has a near-zero rate of backountry hikers being injured or killed by wildlife. Injuries from weather and accidents have a far higher rate. So guns won't make hikers safer, common sense always is the better choice.

And it's not about the right to bear arms. There are already too many places people can take and use weapons, including the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands. And there are more than enough federal and state lands for hunters. Adding NP's to the lands isn't necessary.

I suspect the announcement to review the rule is a political decision to write a decision where it's not feasible to change the longstanding rule of no-guns. Last summer a teen killed two hikers on a trail in the foothills east of Seattle. We don't need the possibility of this situation in NP's. I hope the Presidents stands up to the gun-rights advocates for the rights of all Americans and foreigners visiting the NP's. That's the right decision.

Suggestions

I'm looking for suggestions for some Web pages with the photo guide for Mt. Rainier NP. Specifically the individual areas, see introduction to the fives areas.

I've broken the NP into five areas, the four quadrants defined by the access to them, namely the highways and entrances, and the Paradise area, which is the most popular and visited area. The goal is to present both current conditions and information and specific photography tips and ideas for that area, along with resources for additional information.

In addition, I'd like to present and provide better maps. I'm currently using available NPS maps. Many of the on-line maps aren't of sufficient quality or information to be useful. I use Google maps because it's convenient and has lots of neat user tools, but its view of the NP from the map providers, isn't very good.

The commercial map software packages have some issues with output formats for the Web. Either they don't provide them or they require a plug-in to view them, the former useless for developers and the latter useless for users. And even the USGS uses a proprietary viewer to convert 7 1/2 minute topographic maps to PDF's.

And none of those output formats are scalable, meaning interactive with the user to adjust the size and scale. And the on-line maps which have both scalability and topographic features require subscriptions. It's a no-win situation for someone like me want to develop a map-based photography guide.

So I'll use the public domain NPS maps and try to develop better Web versions so users have a better idea of what they can do in the NP. And here is where you can help by sending me your interests, ideas, suggestions, questions, comments, whatever for the individual areas. In short, what would you like to have before and when you go to the NP?

And you're welcome to let others know about this work. While I have ideas of what I want to do, it won't work if people don't use it. I won't argue my goal eventually is a general guide book and a detailed Website, the former either an on-line version or publish version (my goal) and the latter free. Right now I'm looking at two format for the print, either like this one with foldout maps or this one with a map folder and take out maps. Both books would have six maps, the five sections and an overview map.

But I'm getting ahead of myself by a few years here. The immediate goal is to develop the individual areas into working sections. And that's where you can help. So, it's your opportunity to get some work and information for free. Not a bad price I'd say.

Daily Changes

For those folks who don't understand the changing weather at Mt. Rainier, you're always welcome to follow the changes through the day and over days with the NPS Webcams. But for those who don't here is a sequence of morning snapshots from mid-March to early April.













That's why you have to be prepared and be flexible when you visit Mt. Rainier NP most months.

1896 USGS Expedition

I updated (April 10, 2009) the Web pages for the 1896 expedition by a team of USGS geologists. I translated the narrative in the 1898 report into a time line for dates and places, including a map with camps, stays, waypoints and trips on the expedition July 15-31, 1896.

The expedition started from Carbonado and travelled the Bailey Willis trail established in the early 1880's for miners and Mr. Willis in this exploration of Mt. Rainier for the railroad. The team did the first traverse of the northern side of Mt. Rainier above treeline, establishing base camps at Philo Falls and Winthrop Glacier. While there they did several day trips to areas and a summit climb up Emmons Glacier, not a common climbing route then.

The team included four geologists, four assistants and the 10-year old daughter of one of the geologist who was scheduled to do the summit climb but was scratched by the lead climber the day before the climb. He later said she could have easily done the climb, even better than some of the five on the climbing team. The youngest successful summit climber under 18 wasn't done until the 1960's and not until the 1990's when someone under 10 did a successful climb.

She did the whole two week expedition, all on foot, and all but a few days in the now Mt. Rainier NP. That's the time now hikers spend doing the Wonderland trail (usually 10-14 days). And that was in 1896 when supplies and equipment weren't near as good as today.

Anyway, that's the first set of Web pages on the 1896 expedition. The map above is an 1880's map by Bailey Willis from the original print edition of the 1898 report I found last year. It's cool to read original print material. Gives you a sense of history and value about our national parks.

Version history:
Initial version April 5, 2009.
Updated April 10, 2009, for additional description and corrected dates.