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Mount Rainier
National Park
Established in 1899.
235,625 acres (97% is designated Wilderness).
Includes Mount Rainier (14,410'), an active volcano
encased in over 35 square miles of snow and ice. The
park contains outstanding examples of old growth
forests and subalpine meadows.
Designated a
National Historic Landmark District in 1997 as a
showcase for the "NPS Rustic" style architecture of
the 1920s and 1930s.
Whether
hiking on its flanks, climbing its summit,
snowshoeing or cross-country skiing on its slopes,
camping along its glacier-fed rivers, photographing
wildflower displays in subalpine meadows, or just
admiring the view, nearly two million people come to
enjoy the grandeur and beauty of Mount Rainier each
year.
http://www.mount.rainier.national-park.com/
North
Cascades National Park
Few fully know the intense and
rugged beauty of the North Cascades jagged peaks,
deep valleys, cascading waterfalls and over 700
glaciers. North Cascades National Park Service
Complex contains the heart of this mountainous
region in three park units which are all managed as
one and include North Cascades National Park, Ross
Lake and Lake Chelan National Recreation Areas. Each
area offers different experiences and contains
wilderness. A vast majority of the park complex,
over 93%, is managed as the Stephen T. Mather
Wilderness, which was established by Congress in
1988. The wilderness area was named in honor of the
first director of the National Park Service.
Long before North Cascades
National Park Service Complex was established in
1968, this area was a home. It was the home to many
Native American tribes and a trade gateway between
the Plateau tribes to the east and the Coast Salish
tribes to the west. Native Americans have been in
these mountains for over 8,000 years. More recent
settlers came in the nineteenth century to establish
homesteads in places like the Stehekin Valley, or to
mine elusive minerals ? like gold, or to trap
furbearing animals such as the beaver, otter, and
marten. Now it is preserved as a national park for
future generations to enjoy.
http://www.north.cascades.national-park.com/
Olympic National
Park
Often referred to as "three
parks in one", Olympic National Park encompasses
three distinctly different ecosystems rugged glacier
capped mountains, over 60 miles of wild Pacific
coast and magnificent stands of old-growth and
temperate rain forest. These diverse ecosystems are
still largely pristine in character (about 95% of
the park is designated wilderness)and are Olympic's
gift to you.
Olympic is also known for
its biological diversity. Isolated for eons by
glacial ice, the waters of Puget Sound and the
Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Olympic Peninsula has
developed its own distinct array of plants and
animals. Eight kinds of plants and five kinds of
animals are found on the peninsula and live nowhere
else in the world.
http://www.olympic.national-park.com/ |
