.gif)
National Parks
Portfolio
MENU
Mount Rainier
| National Parks Portfolio |
|
Mount Rainier
A RIVER OF ICE 400 FEET THICK FLOWING FROM THE SHINING SUMMIT
Looking from a wild-flower slope down upon the
celebrated Nisqually Glacier and up at Columbia Crest
Photograph by Ranapar Studio
PARTY READ TO START ON SKYLINE TRAIL TRIP
Photograph by Ranapar Studio
THE FROZEN OCTOPUS
ALONG the western rim of the North American Continent, bordering the Pacific Ocean, rises a series of volcanoes which once blazed across the sea like giant beacons. To-day, their fires quenched, they suggest a stalwart band of Knights of the Ages, helmeted in snow, armored in ice, standing at parade upon a carpet patterned gorgeously in wild flowers.
Easily chief of this knightly band is Mount Rainier, a giant towering fourteen thousand four hundred and eight feet above tidewater in Puget Sound. Home-bound sailors far at sea mend their courses from his silver summit.
This mountain has a glacier system far exceeding in size and impressive beauty that of any other in the United States. From its snow-covered summit twenty-eight rivers of ice pour slowly down its sides. Seen upon the map, as if from an airplane, one thinks of it as an enormous frozen octopus stretching icy tentacles down upon every side among the rich gardens of wild flowers and splendid forests of firs and cedars below.
Continued >>>
Top
Last Modified: Mon, Oct 31, 2002 10:00:00 pm PDT
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/portfolio/portfolio4a.htm
.gif){kind=small}