Earthwindows.com: Blog

January 12, 2024 -Winter has arrived

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 06:08:11 GMT

Winter has arrived at Paradise with 47" of new powder this week. The road to Paradise will be closed for the weekend due to extreme temperatures, wind and avalanche dangers. The climatologist is still predicting a mild winter. The last 2 years we had a quick Spring melt off and early flowers. I expect the same for this year and how climate change is accelerating in the park. Lowland plants, like horsetails have taken hold in several places above 6000 feet on the Paradise side and are out of control. The Paradise Glacier is shrinking at an alarming rate too. The Cascade Butterfly teams documented 37 species and 3874 butterflies in our plot studies this year. The Mazama Ridge trail spike in August with over 400 butterflies counted at the end of August. Most of the flowers at Sunrise and Spray Park were already gone by then due to the drought conditions we had in the Spring.

This year the Park is celebrating its 125th Anniversary on March 2nd. Should be plenty of new visitor programs during the summer to celebrate this event. Note road construction continues in Steven's Canyon and possibly Frying Pan Creek on the Sunrise side.

Summer is quickly approaching

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 23:44:50 GMT

Paradise is melting out fast with patches of wildflowers starting to bloom. The heat this week will probably fry all the glacier lilies in bloom on the Valley road. With Steven's Canyon still closed very few choices to hike in the Paradise area without snow. Go to Sunrise on the east side of the Park.

June 2020

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 15:36:15 GMT

Well May is gone and June has arrived with possible Phase 2 opening in the area. Mt Rainier is still closed and during the upcoming pod cast tomorrow we might get a glimpse of what the summer will be like in the Park. A limited number of seasonal staff has been hired and are on site training for this epic new adventure.

Paradise is down to 118" of snow on the ground and the lower forest should be in full bloom.

Virus

Sun, 12 Apr 2020 16:59:18 GMT

Spring is here. The flowers are popping everywhere, but know place to go. Here in Washington all state lands, county parks, National Parks and private parks are all closed. So visit these parks on line for a virtual tour - especially the National Parks and absorb this in your veins to keep your sanity. If people obey the rules in place this virus will fade away faster. Happy Spring.

Winter has arrived.

Tue, 06 Mar 2018 22:29:34 GMT

Last 2 -3 weeks, Paradise has gained about 80" of snow. We now have about 170" on the ground, but March is usually a very snowy month. By the end of March I will have a better idea on a melt out date for Paradise.

Melt out

Tue, 18 Apr 2017 22:40:23 GMT

Currently with nearly 14 feet of snow on the ground still at Paradise and no real temperature swings for a few weeks we will be melting out late this year. Unless we start getting into the 60-70 degree range we are looking at late August for flowers this year and a definite challenge for people on the Wonderland Trail starting in June.

Peak Flowers on Mazama Ridge

Tue, 19 Aug 2014 16:28:17 GMT

We hiked up Golden Gate yesterday which is plush with lupine and Sitka Valerian. A few Monkey Flowers out just below the stone couch.

Mazama Ridge was a carpet of Lupine and Magenta Paintbrush.

Ranger Joe's Mountain Blog

Tue, 17 Jun 2014 20:28:44 GMT

Found a new flower in Steven's Canyon - Arabis drummundii