2012 Plans

I've updated the Mt. Rainier photo guide with the plans for 2012 and beyond. There is still another 2-3 years of work which orginally started in 2006 but didn't get momentum until 2008. The plans, found here, are divided into routine and current work and current and new projects.

As you can see, it's a lot, partly because the routine and current work take about a week a month with some newer work from reviews needing up to a week each. The current projects are 1-3 weeks work and most of the new ones are in the 2-4 week timeframe from start to final production for the Web.

The Website with the Mt. Rainier NP photo guide currently has just over 420 individual Web pages and about 40 photo galleries. When completed I expect the whole set will encompass about 500 Web pages, and this doesn't include all the publications and files available from the Web pages, many of them scanned government or public domain reports or books.

I don't have a timeline for the work. This last year showed me plans are easily trashable, and while I'm slowly getting and feeling better, it's still hard some days, which is why I'm working slowly and increments. I'm back to an excercise plan (walking 5-6 miles 2-3 days a week to town and back), but it's far from what it was before all these health issues started.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll talk about the future book plans down the road when I have those sections finished to turn the photo guide into a book.

January Reports

I have updated the news, conditions and prospects for January along with the updating the season background for winter, with a map for the NP. All of this pretty much is what you would expect, snow everywhere but the northwest corner which is snow free to about 3,000 feet.

The snowplay area will not open until the snowpack is 5 feet at Paradise which will be sometime in early January, earlier if there is a rash of snowstorms come through the area and the NP. Warmer temperatures in late December after some snowstorms in the week or so before melted some of the snow to where it is lower than 5 feet.

The Jackson visitors center is open daily through January 2 and then resorts to the weekend and holiday schedule into May. This means after the New Years holiday there will be no services at Paradise on weekdays. In addition the cold weather and snow is requiring chains on 2WD cars most days beginning anywhere from Longmire to Cougar Rock campground.

Remember to carry chains in your vehicle in the NP
Before you go you should check the NP's Twitter Account for the latest road conditions and snow conditions at Paradise. It will save you driving time if everything is closed or help to be ready to sit awhile at Longmire until the gate is open.

NP Boundary History

Mt. Rainier, 1896

I've finished the brief history of the boundary of Mt. Rainier NP, see descritption and map. As you can see from the map the original NP was considerably smaller in size, thought to have been square but wasn't due to kinks in the township and range land plat system in use. That was resolved with the 1931 law adding new lands to the NP.

Subsequent changes occurred in 1988 and 2003, but these were mostly smalll additions or inclusions of land for better management of the NP resources, and with one small removal for Crystal Mountain ski resort's ski operations. The 1988 was for inclusion of adjacent USFS land for the NP to completely encompass the Stevens Canyon Road (southeast) and Westside Road (west central) into the NP and NPS management.

The 2003 was the inclusion of land just outside the northwest corner, the Carbon River entrance, for space for visitor facilities (parking, camping, building, etc.) because the land inside the NP was susceptible to flooding, namely 2006 and 2008 which destroyed number NP facilities, and the NP has approved the new Carbon River plan to move all but essential services to this new land, to close the old road, which has been temporarily closed since 2006, and to reroute the trail.

This addition will probably be the last in some time since it took so long to negotiate swapping private timber lands, and expensive. There still is a need to add land to the NP, but much of the land is in the USFS lands and has been logged. But that said, there is land in the northwest and southwest corner, the river corridors, which would benefit the NP for better management.

Anyway, that's the latest update. More is on the way over the next few weeks.

Snowplay Area News

The snowplay area is still closed as there still is not 5 feet of snow over the meadows for the snowplay areas at Paradise. No date has been announced for the opening of the snowplay area but hopefully it will be soon, but that depends on the snowfall and snowpack, which presently is just over 4 feet at Paradise Visitors Center.

You can keep updated with the Mt. Rainier NPS Twitter Account. The road status (Longmire to Paradise) and snowplay area with other news, will be posted there. This is a great resource for NP visitors.

Update Topographic Maps

Paradise Park, 1915, click for larger view

I updated the USGS topographic map Web pages, description and map, for the USGS' work producing topographic maps of Mt. Rainier NP from the first in 1915 to the latest with the 1971 NP map and the 15 maps in the series of 7.5-minute maps which covers the NP and some of the topographic map software packages available for Apple computers, tablets and cellphones.

That's it for now. Have a good Christmas holiday.