Rain Around the Mountain
It is hard to imagine that several days of rain in a wet region such as the Pacific Northwest would close a national park for six months. But when copious amounts of water rushed down hillsides and roads and overfilled the rivers within Mount Rainier National Park’s boundaries, the end result was a loss of campgrounds, roads, trails and utilities.
A steady rain began falling around 1 p.m. on Sunday, November 5 and continued through mid-afternoon on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. Varying amounts of precipitation reached the ground throughout the park from Carbon River to Ohanapecosh. Nearly 18 of rain inches was recorded at Paradise. As the ground was already saturated from a week of drizzle, rain and snow, most of the water flowed over roadways and across the landscape into the rivers.
Old growth trees in the path of the rushing water were uprooted. Bridges, trails and roads were removed from their strongholds and took their place alongside rolling boulders in the raging water. Rivers and creeks changed channels cutting new paths and leaving old ones dry.
