Some Notes

A few mid-month notes about Mt. Rainier NP. First, State Route (SR) 7, is still under repair near La Grande from a landslide earlier this summer (June). The highway is closed in the area of La Grande and traffic north from Tacoma and south from Elbe (and from Morton or Ashford) is being rerouted around the work.

Visitors travelling south from Tacoma will encounter the detour just north of the Experimental Forest on the Eatonville-La Grande road which routes traffic through Eatonville to highway 161, the Alder Cutoff Road which reconnects with SR 7 just east of Alder Lake State Park.

Visitors travelling north from Morton on highway 7 or from Ashford and Mt. Rainier NP on highway 706 will take the reverse route north to Eatonville where all travellers have several options to travel to Tacoma.

The first is the detour back to highway 7 on the Eatonville-La Grande Road and then north to Tacoma. The second is Washington Ave. N in Eatonville to Meridian Ave E where you have two options north,
on the Eatonville Cutoff Road E back to highway 7 and on to Tacoma or on Meridian Ave E (highway 161) back to Tacoma.

Both of these meet highway 512 to Puyallup or Interstate 5. Either way, the whole trip adds 20 minutes or so to the drive to and from Mt. Rainier NP. The state has indicated the highway won't be full repaired into November if not later in the fall or winter. Good luck there.

The second note is the Outdoor Fest in Ashford this weekend (Sept 15-16th). It's mostly focused on climbers since it's sponsored by climbing companies, but it's a good time for interested people for a day or two.

The third is the Sunrise area is closing later in the month. Currently only the day lodge is open, but it and the road will close for the season on or about October 1st, which also is the time the White River campground closes for the season. The White River road to the campground stays open awhile longer.

That's it for now. The October report will be later in the month.

September Reports

The news, conditions, and prospects for September are now available for the Mt. Rainier NP photo guide. They were a little late due to the Labor Day holiday weekend, but they're good for the rest of the month.

 All said, once past the holiday weekend, it's the change from summer to fall operations as the NPS begins the reduction of hours and then the closure of facilities, followed with the closures of campgrounds, roads and entrances through September, into October for some locations and November for the rest.

September is probably the best month to go if you're not into wildflowers or similar photography, but just want really nice late summer and early fall landscapes and scenes with really nice weather. There are far fewer people and no bugs to pester you anywhere.

So, enjoy it while it lasts, real fall is coming followed shortly by winter. Cold and snow ain't far ahead.

Trail and hiking guides

Besides my initial Web pages in Mt. Rainier National Park for day hikes and backcountry hikes guides - there are several other Websites with trail and hike guides, some with user reports, for western Washington (Cascade and Olympic Mountains). These can be expanded to focus specifically on Mt. Rainier NP.

The first is the newest, the Washington Trail Association (WTA) with access, trail information and user reports. It's an excellent resource.

The second is the Tacoma Tribune (newspaper) . It has excellent descriptions and information on the trails with Google map interface.

The third is Hiker (.org). This one is quite complete for information and maps.

The fourth is the Visit Rainier (.com) with excellent trail descriptions.

The last is the NPS guide to the trails in Mt. Rainier NP, along with the latest trail conditions.

Personal notes:

Some of the trail and hike guides may not have the additional mileage of the Carbon River road which has been closed to vehicles at the NP boundary since November 2006. You have the check the information for the specific trail or hike. They either will have the mileage as noted after the November 2006 storm and flood damage, or they won't, which is an indicator it isn't included.

There are other on-line guides, and I welcome suggestions to add to this list. I haven't included commercial ones which require you to register and provide additional information. As this information is public knowledge and available in books and on Websites, I don't feel any Website should have prerequistes for obtaining information and descriptions or view maps, and therefore won't be included.

In addition these Websites are reasonably inclusive of many of the dayhikes in Mt. Rainier with considerable detailed information about the trail or hike or about their experience. These are excellent sources, but you have to use judge as to when they were there to assess the current condition of the trail and hike.

Other photographers

Being just an ordinary photographer, albeit after nearly 40 years of practice I should be better than I am, but, as they say, that's life. Anyway, I admire the work of professional photographer who have a history of working in and publishing work about Mt. Rainier NP. And to that end, I thought I would list a few I admire, some of whom I've met to add to the admiration and respect.

First is Pat O'Hara who with Tim McNulty has published several books on Mt. Rainier NP, including the official Centennial Celebration book published by Moutaineers Books.

Second is Don Geyer, who's gallery of Mt. Rainier is excellent. If you have the chance to attend one of his presentations, do so. A mountain climbers turned photographer wouldn't be far behind the late Galen Rowell in my book, save for Galen's international reputation. But then I've always like Galen's work, especially his essays.

Third is Charles Gurche and his work in Mt. Rainier NP.

Fourth is James Martin. His book with John Harlin on Mt. Rainier NP opens your mind to different views when you visit.

Fifth is Alan Kearney who's book provides photography ideas from just being there.

Some of the above have books listed on the books Web pages. And some who haven't published books but have on-line galleries also provide magnificent photos and ideas.

First is Alan Bauer and his gallery of Mt. Rainier images.

Second is Patrick Holleran and his gallery of Mt. Rainier NP images.

There are lots of other photographers working in and publishing either on-line or in print images of Mt. Rainier and the NP, and as I find more I'll update this list. And if these don't rattle your photo synpases and invite you to go there and photograph, well, I don't know what or who will.

Even another ordinary photographer like myself always yearns and then goes to look, see and capture. What else is there?

Update 8/21/12 for broken links

Pre-1900 Photographers

Since I've been researching the material behind the 1896 expedition I've discovered the real possibility and most likely probability the photos published with the 1898 report were not taken on the expedition but were taken by other photographers around that time, likely 1894-1898.

Since then I've been researching photographers who were working in and around Mount Rainier before 1900, before it became a National Park in 1899, and so far I have found the following ones.

The photos in the 1898 report were attributed to Bailey Willis, the USGS and lead geologist for the expedition. In addition the USGS archives has 40-50 negatives of Mt. Rainier contributed to Bailey Willis.

Researching photographers working in and around Mt. Rainier 1894-98, some of the images in the report at identical to those taken by Alvin Waite who lived and worked around Tacoma, WA during the period. It's not clear how the USGS obtained copies of the photos and permission to use them since it would have required duplicates of the 4x5 negatives.

I have found references to Cyrus A. Mosier, appointed Public Lands Director for Washington in 1989, serving intermittent periods until he retired in 1900. The references cite a report on the forests of Mt. Rainier along with 100 of the 200 phootographs he took around Mt. Rainier in the early 1890's. To date I haven't found any references to this report or archives of his photographs.

In addition Henry Sarvant worked in the area for a brief period on this adventures around the world.

Some photographers with studios in Seattle occasionally worked around Mt. Rainier. George H. Braas of Boyd and Braas photographed visitors and climbers in Mt. Rainier, Mountaineers Collection.

Some of George Braas' photo were incorporated into an article by Isreal C. Russell, "Impressions of Mt. Rainier", published in Scribner's Magazine, Volume 22, page 169-176, 1897.

Just outside that period, Arthur Churchill photographed an 1888 summit expedition.

After that period Albert Barnes worked in and around Mt. Rainier NP, 1905-10.

I haven't fully explored the photographers from that period, lots of work left, and I haven't checked out the NPS archives yet. So, this post will be updated as I find more collections.

Blog updated 3/18/09, 11/4/09 and 8/21/12