One Best Hike: Mount Rainier's Wonderland Trail. Doug Lorain
usually more diverse in size and age. One of the most delightful understory species in this zone is the huckleberry, which provides a tasty feast in late summer.
Above the forests are the subalpine parklands, which spectacularly host so much of the Wonderland Trail. These make up about 23% of the park’s area and include many of the park’s most popular road-accessible locations, such as Paradise and Sunrise. Here trees come only in scattered clumps, so you are no longer in forest. Instead the dominant vegetation is grasses, sedges, low-growing shrubs, and amazingly abundant wildflowers. What trees exist are often picturesquely contorted by wind and heavy snowfall and include whitebark pines, mountain hemlocks, subalpine firs, Alaska yellow cedars, and a few Engelmann spruces.
One of the things for which Mount Rainier is justly famous is the abundance and beauty of its wildflowers. In mid- to late summer many visitors are more impressed with the blossoms found carpeting the subalpine parklands than they are with the mountain views. Peak blooming times vary with the elevation and the depth of the previous winter’s snowpack, but if seeing lots of wildflowers is part of your reason for hiking the Wonderland Trail, then it’s usually best to schedule your hike from very late July to mid-August.
A complete list of the park’s wildflowers is beyond the scope of this book (not to mention the expertise of the author), so what follows is only a partial listing of the most abundant species you are likely to encounter. White flowers you should look for include twinflowers, bunchberries, mountain bistorts, Sitka valerians, avalanche lilies, bear grass, western pasqueflowers, pussytoes, yarrows, and, in very moist areas, marsh marigolds. Common yellow and orange wildflowers are glacier lilies, groundsels, fanleaf cinquefoils, buttercups, and orange agoseris (or orange mountain dandelions). Some of the most abundant blue wildflowers are subalpine lupines, larkspurs, bluebells, and, in late summer, gentians. Finally a few of the more abundant red and pink wildflowers are paintbrushes, shooting stars, mountain spireas, pink heather, fireweeds, cliff penstemons, and columbines. Anyone who is interested in wildflowers should carry an identification guide. With one of these in hand you could easily spend several happy hours in almost any meadow identifying, photographing, smelling, and generally enjoying the vast array of blossoms that carpet these bits of mountain paradise. Keep in mind, however, that these high meadows have very short growing seasons and are extremely fragile. Always remain on established trails to avoid trampling the delicate flowers.
Western pasqueflowers
Above the subalpine parklands is the alpine zone, which is dominated by rocks, ice, and snowfields. Here the plants must cope with extreme conditions and are often very small and hard to see. Tiny rock gardens brighten these areas, and discovering these little patches of color is a real joy. Aster, heather, partridgefoot, moss campion, phlox, and Cusick’s speedwell are among the more commonly encountered wildflowers. Other flora include lichens (a favorite food of mountain goats), grasses, and various sedges. Despite the harsh conditions, the plant communities here are among the oldest in the park. Some heather communities, for example, are believed to have persisted in these alpine environments for as long as 10,000 years.
FAUNA
As is true throughout the world, by far the most abundant group of animals in Mount Rainier National Park is the invertebrates—insects, worms, spiders, and the like. Apart from admiring a few colorful butterflies or cursing the blasted mosquitoes, however, most people show little interest in the vast range of little critters. Still, they are vitally important to the health of the park’s ecosystems and can be quite fascinating. They range from such unusual animals as ice worms, which live in the mountain’s glacial ice, to an array of beetles that prowl the forest floor. Take some time during your hike to examine these miniature beings and appreciate their beauty and importance. (OK, feel free to swat a mosquito or two, but the rest of the group is generally harmless and worth your respect.)
Reptiles, which generally prefer warmer and drier habitats than what predominates at Mount Rainier, are fairly rare. Some garter snakes and rubber boas, as well as a few northern alligator lizards, live in the park, but that pretty much completes the list. Amphibians, on the other hand, are abundant. In fact, in many of the park’s forest habitats, the biomass (total weight) of amphibians is thought to exceed that of all other vertebrate groups combined. Observant hikers stand a good chance of spotting many species of frogs and salamanders, including western toads, tailed frogs, Cascades frogs, long-toed and Pacific giant salamanders, and rough-skinned newts. One concern when it comes to amphibians is the introduction of fish into lakes that evolved without them. In particular, predation by introduced trout is thought to be responsible for the elimination of many salamander species from several of the park’s lakes.
Birds are perhaps the most conspicuous group of animals noticed by park visitors. Several dozen species regularly use the park either as permanent residents or as transients that migrate through the area or that arrive in the spring to nest through the summer months. Almost every hiker is sure to see such abundant and conspicuous species as Steller’s jays, common ravens, Clark’s nutcrackers, and dark-eyed juncos. With more careful observation you will notice that the different species typically stay in particular habitats found in the park’s distinct life zones. With this knowledge it becomes easier to know what to look for in each environment and to identify the types of feathered friends you encounter. In the park’s low-elevation forests, for example, you should keep an eye out for red-breasted nuthatches, brown creepers, varied thrushes, winter wrens, hairy woodpeckers, chestnut-backed chickadees, and olive-sided flycatchers. Very lucky and observant visitors may see the threatened northern spotted owl, which makes its home in these dense forests. Birds that are characteristic of the midelevation forests include Wilson’s and yellow-rumped warblers, golden-crowned kinglets, hermit thrushes, pine siskins, blue grouses, mountain chickadees, and gray jays. In the high-elevation meadows you may be fortunate enough to spot violet-green swallows, rufous hummingbirds, red-tailed hawks, mountain bluebirds, Cassin’s finches, and horned larks. The alpine areas have the fewest birds, but you may run across gray-crowned rosy finches or white-tailed ptarmigans. Along the park’s many rivers and streams you stand a good chance of seeing birds that prefer the watery environment, including American dippers, belted kingfishers, great blue herons, or the rare but quite beautiful harlequin ducks.
Despite an abundance of wonderfully pure and unpolluted water, fish are uncommon at Mount Rainier. Unfortunately, downstream dams have blocked the passage of native steelhead as well as chinook and coho salmon to most of the park’s rivers, though these magnificent fish can still sometimes be observed in the Carbon and White river systems. Fish are not native to any of the park’s lakes, but stocking has brought several species of trout to these pristine waters. Changes in NPS management policies halted the stocking of fish in 1972, but small, self-sustaining populations of brook, rainbow, and cutthroat trout remain in many lakes. In the rivers and streams not cut off by downstream waterfalls are native populations of coastal cutthroat trout, steelhead, and Dolly Varden and/or bull trout. In general, the numbers of fish are too small to draw many anglers, and few Wonderland Trail hikers carry fishing equipment.
Though only a small part of the entire wildlife picture, mammals are what most people think of when discussing the animals of Mount Rainier National Park. Only a few mammals are abundant and easily observed. These include small rodents such as Douglas’ squirrels and golden-mantled ground squirrels and larger animals such as black-tailed deer, which are often seen in meadows early or late in the day. Like the birds, most mammals are habitat specialists that generally stay within their preferred life zones. The voles, shrews, and other tiny animals that inhabit the forests are rarely seen, but you almost certainly will see Townsend’s chipmunks during your hike, and in the evenings it is common to see small bats feasting on insects. If you are very lucky, you may see somewhat larger mammals such as porcupines, snowshoe hares, or pine martens. In rocky areas at higher elevations, look for pikas, shy but exceptionally cute little guinea pig–like animals with rounded ears. They emit a high-pitched “meep” sound that is quite distinctive. Another high-elevation species that you will likely see is the hoary marmot, which is about the size of an overweight house cat. These mammals dig holes in the meadows for their homes and belt out a high whistling sound when alarmed by predators or passing hikers.