Mount Rainier National Park:

Mount Rainier National Park is a United States National Park located in southeast Pierce County and northeast Lewis County in Washington state.It was established on March 2, 1899 as the fifth national park in the United States. The park encompasses 236,381 acres including all of Mount Rainier, a 14,410-foot stratovolcano.The mountain rises abruptly from the surrounding land with elevations in the park ranging from 1,600 feet to over 14,000 feet.The highest point in the Cascade Range, around it are valleys, waterfalls, subalpine wildflower meadows, old growth forest and more than 25 glaciers. The volcano is often shrouded in clouds that dump enormous amounts of rain and snow on the peak every year and hide it from the crowds that head to the park on weekends.Mount Rainier is circled by the Wonderland Trail and is covered by several glaciers and snowfields totaling some 35 square miles. Carbon Glacier is the largest glacier by volume in the continental United States, while Emmons Glacier is the largest glacier by area. About 1.8 million people visit Mount Rainier National Park each year. Mount Rainier is a popular peak for mountain climbing with some 10,000 attempts per year with approximately 50% making it to the summit.Ninety-seven percent of the park is preserved as wilderness under the National Wilderness Preservation System, including Clearwater Wilderness and Mount Rainier Wilderness, a designation it received in 1988. It is abutted by the Tatoosh Wilderness. The park was designated a National Historic Landmark on 18 February 1997 as a showcase for the National Park Service Rustic style architecture of the 1920s and 1930s, exemplified by the Paradise Inn and a masterpiece of early NPS master planning. As an Historic Landmark district, the park was administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places.In January 1, 2012 Park Ranger Margaret Anderson was shot dead while stopping a vehicle. The suspected assailant Benjamin Colton Barnes fled and hid in the park, prompting the authorities to close the park and launch a manhunt.Barnes' body was found the following day.

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