Reflections at Mt. Rainier
Saturday the 6th we wrapped up our day in Mt. Rainier National Park with two short stops: one at Reflection Lake and one at the visitors center. Yes, we visited the visitors center, the place where generally one starts a visit to get information, last. But before that was Reflection Lake.
Reflection Lake was up at the top of the pass after the well-disguised trailhead to visit Martha Falls. It was right alongside the road, with ample parking- thought very busy in the late afternoon hour- so we didn't have to hike. That was a boon to our aching muscles.
Throughout my blogs on this day's adventures I've written several times about how this river or that river is fed by a glacier on Mt. Rainier. You might wonder, "How many glaciers are there?" The answer is 12. There are 12 glaciers on Mt. Rainier.
I was surprised by that number because it's a lot. Although evidence of glacial activity is everywhere in the mountains of the western US, there aren't many glaciers left. For the most part they did their thing during and coming out of the Ice Age. In most places they're gone altogether. Yosemite? Majestic Yosemite Valley is carved by a glacier, but you won't find one there anymore.
Even where glaciers do remain they are receding due to climate change. That change is partly a natural process as the climate has warmed gradually since the last Ice Age, but it's mostly a human-caused process where the climate has warmed extremely rapidly in the last 100 years. in eponymously named Glacier National Park, it's getting hard to see glaciers that were easily visible in the 1950s. Today they're just remnants of what they were within the space of an average human lifespan. Soon they may be gone altogether.
Let's enjoy the beauty that remains but also take steps to stem its demise.
In beauty we walk.
Reflection Lake was up at the top of the pass after the well-disguised trailhead to visit Martha Falls. It was right alongside the road, with ample parking- thought very busy in the late afternoon hour- so we didn't have to hike. That was a boon to our aching muscles.
Throughout my blogs on this day's adventures I've written several times about how this river or that river is fed by a glacier on Mt. Rainier. You might wonder, "How many glaciers are there?" The answer is 12. There are 12 glaciers on Mt. Rainier.
I was surprised by that number because it's a lot. Although evidence of glacial activity is everywhere in the mountains of the western US, there aren't many glaciers left. For the most part they did their thing during and coming out of the Ice Age. In most places they're gone altogether. Yosemite? Majestic Yosemite Valley is carved by a glacier, but you won't find one there anymore.
Even where glaciers do remain they are receding due to climate change. That change is partly a natural process as the climate has warmed gradually since the last Ice Age, but it's mostly a human-caused process where the climate has warmed extremely rapidly in the last 100 years. in eponymously named Glacier National Park, it's getting hard to see glaciers that were easily visible in the 1950s. Today they're just remnants of what they were within the space of an average human lifespan. Soon they may be gone altogether.
Let's enjoy the beauty that remains but also take steps to stem its demise.
In beauty we walk.