Photos

Mount Rainier National Park

Mount Rainier established on 02 March 1899, contains vast expanses of pristine old-growth forests, subalpine flower meadows, spectacular alpine scenery, and great opportunity for stimulating outdoor activities. Mount Rainier National Park is the fifth oldest national park in the United States. The park has the greatest single-peak glacial system in the United States. Glaciers radiate from the summit and slopes of the 14,411 foot volcano.
The first recorded view of Mount Rainier was made by Captain George Vancouver, a British explorer, while mapping Puget Sound in 1792. He named it after his friend Peter Rainier. The Indians called it Takhoma and had many legends about it.

The park encompasses 378 square miles (980 square kilometers, 235,612.5 acres). Elevation ranges from 1,880 at the Carbon River rain forest (NW corner of park) to 14,411 feet at the summit. Annual visitation exceeds 2 million visitors, with the majority of visitors coming to the park during the months of May through October.

Mount Rainier is an episodically active volcano. The volcano began to grow between one half and one million years ago. The slopes of lava flows on opposite sides of the mountain probably projected more than 1,000 feet above the present summit. The upper portion of the cone was likely removed by explosions and landslides. The current summit, Columbia Crest, lies at 14,411 feet above sea level, on the rim of the recent lava cone.
Mount Rainier, the highest (4392 m) volcano in the Cascade Range, towers over a population of more than 2.5 million in the Seattle Tacoma metropolitan area, and its drainage system via the Columbia River potentially impacts another 500,000 residents of southwestern Washington and northwestern Oregon. Mount Rainier is the most hazardous volcano in the Cascades in terms of its potential for magma water interaction and sector collapse, and major eruptions or debris flows even without eruption. It poses significant dangers and economic threats to the region but despite such hazards and risk, Mount Rainier has received little study.

The photo is a stitch composed with 7 vertical photographs.
Each photo : 13mm ; F/9 ; 1/160 secondes ; ISO/100
I used a gradual grey filter with a cokin system.