Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Rainier National Park in western Washington was established in 1899; it preserves a 235,612-acre area in which the Cascade Range reaches its highest peak, the dormant volcano Mount Rainier (14,410 feet). More than two dozen glaciers flow down the slopes of Rainier and end at the timberline (6,500 feet), where their meltwaters feed the park's many lakes and waterfalls. Emmons Glacier is the largest U.S. glacier outside of Alaska, and Carbon Glacier is the longest, at 6 miles. Different varieties of hemlocks, firs, and pines succeed each other from one life zone to the next.