Thursday July 25th

Folks, remember Thursday July 25 is the RAMROD bicycle ride for 800 cyclists who will ride round Mt. Rainier NP from highways 7 to highway 706 at Elbe and then to and through the NP to the Stevens Canyon Road to highway123, and then north over Cayuse Pass to highway 410 to Enumclaw.

It's pretty much takes most of the day for all the cyclists. There will be stops for them and traffic control so they and cars can travel safely on the route to, through and from the NP. If you go to the NP, please drive with care and give them all the room they need.

Further Update

After sitting at a cafe and wandering through the photo guide I found about a dozen Web pages which need updates or could use additional information, so for the rest of July and August I'll be working on them during the hiatus from the guide, or at least the pages which don't take too much research or work.

Otherwise, enjoy the NP during the summer. It's short-lived into September and fall comes sneaking onto the scene and the weather changes drastically from the change through August and the NPS begins to plan the closure of facilities and roads.

July-August News

View from Camp Muir looking due south down the Muir Snowfield to McClure Rock with Mt. Adams on the left and Mount St. Helens on the right in the distance.

I have updated the monthly news and information, condition and access, and monthly prospects Web pages with the photo guide for July and August. I will be reviewing and updating other Web pages which have seasonal information for the summer season this month.

After this work is done, I'll be taking a short hiatus until after the Labor Day holiday weekend to focus on some other overdue work and my fitness program which has progressed but still needs more time and work.

During this hiatus I will be looking at the todo list and doing some background research to work on the fall updates and information and other Web pages. And I'll be posting occasional news and information here which effects visitors and photographers to the NP.

State Route 7

State Road 7 (SR 7), one of the primary roads to access the Nisqually Entrance of Mount Rainier National Park, will be closed for a portion of the summer for slope stabilization work. During the closure, the Nisqually Entrance of the park is still accessible via a 15-20 minute detour though Eatonville using the Alder Cutoff Road to reconnect to SR 7 past the closure.

SR 7 Closure Dates for 2013:
July 8 - SR 7 Closes
August 9 - 12 - SR 7 open for the Loggers Jubilee Weekend
August 13 - SR 7 Closes
August 30 - September 2 - SR 7 open for Labor Day Weekend
September 3 - SR 7 Closes
Work scheduled through the end of October, final date to reopen TBD depending on the progress of the roadwork.

More information is available on the Washington Department of Transportation project page for SR 7. Also, see July 1st press release

Website Down

As of about 3:30 pm today (July 23rd) my Website is down due to the host (Rainier Connect) being down. Everything isn't working with them, their Website beside those they host, e-mail servers, etc. The whole game for them.

It seems or appears something major broke and they're experiencing "technical difficulties" with their system. Gee, so much for selling yourself as 100% reliable. No word on their Twitter accout about the outage or when they'll be back.

Update.-- What do yo know, as of now, 5:10 pm, they're back. I wonder if they deduct this from the bill next month, 1.5 hours of our stupidity. Yeah, I'm not enamored with them but they're the lesser of evils for Website hosting services here.

Webcams

I have updated the Web page for the Webcams at Mt. Rainier NP. There were some errors with the links (the NPS often changes them in the reorganization of the Web pages) and some updated imformation on the status of the two seasonal locations, Camp Muir and Sunrise, both of which are now on-line.

I apologize for the delays with these updates. Life has interrupted some work on the photo guide, which I'm getting back to now.