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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 1919)
SECTION FIVE. Pages 1 to 12. mim Automobile and Highwa v New VOL. XXXVIII. PORTLAND, OKEGOX, SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 13, 1919. NO. 28. TO MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK IN A CHEVROLET GAR Koad Open and in Fine Condition to Narada Falls, Four Miles From. Paradise Valley,, and to Be Open Best of Way-About July 15. 0 f j. V . - - X - X,A Vf1a -X.S I - i ..-.--x.x . . -in a.i.Tt,iMiii vatinim ima iii.,iwc a-'ittim ,i I ---------------------- a& i - i - .-t. 0. . n ' w x. , v Siva"" t xO V i Xy , X X xj I7 exrfSiS . JT V v fx Xt; SPX "g -X W -? - -r - fX .x V ix VV&x4 . - VMS.- s-,:V--i',! x t i! - vr - -saw r iv, x nfxj.,,--. x i x xX- If Jf ft Js , A XX X xtxij x , 'U, kali i-it' i jj 11 "I ! ' P . -: : ill. " ; ! . . I : t .11:' , . : V , ..xf x f. "811' Hi . ... ... . lit , I M wST i! fJ ; III . ".tr''1- SI -"fx- - w - -0Xx'-. s. " t v asx.? II "rfi. i r I I r..-V . . x X-J Xx -.W. . x til "XJM l . . Wf CjP x- r' x m I rxx.-x t - x-x v-sl -Zt-'t -t Vjm BY L. II. GREGORT. CO another to your list of motor ing tours for this summer. Mount Rainier National park Is open and the roads to and within It la fine condition. Let Calif ornlans praise their Tosem tte and rlobe trotters discuss the Alps. Until they have visited Mount Ranter National park they know not the fullness of the earth's wonders. If people generally realised what is to be seen there and enjoyed, the great park wouldn't be large enough to hold the throngs that would come. But this is nowise an article de srrtptive of the scenery in Mount Rainier National park. To the con trary, an account of how to get there aad of road conditions en route and within the park, for the guidance motorists desiring to make the trip. juagtng irom Inquiries already re. cetved. tneir number will be great thi year. It was because of this early flood of Inquiries as to :he psrk that the writer, with Arthur L. Fields of the Fields Motor Car company, made the run last week In a Chevrolet to obtain full formation and log the route In a ad Oat Agala. We had been to the races at Tacoma en July 4 and there seen Louis Cher rolet. Cliff Dursnt. Ralph 11 ul ford Kddie Hearne and Dm no Resta thrill with their speed driving. On the re. turn tne opportunity to run over to Mount Rainier National park waa too good to miss. 80 Fields pointed thi Chevrolet out Pacific avenue in Ta coma that morning, and by noon we were in the park. It was only a hurried visit In and out again the same day. and half way to Portland that night but even so. a never-io-o-iorgoiien experience. When you drive to the park, make a point of taking plenty of time to It. Plan to drive leisurely and star a week or so when you get there. Sights there are on the way. long before you even enter the park after which It's ail view that you will feel you could watch unwearied for hours on end. Yet if the trip must be made In a hurry, your guest, say. having only the ay or two to spare for the tour, it can be dona and si ill be worth the while. That is one of the' beauties of this tour the scressibility of Mount Rainier National park. Thereto at present it has the d- " x A w?$V iS S&fts' Jjft'A fH--; i xx ?xxx V- x 7 US S x - il .ix x.; M, V X X xt X xs , .Tlx. 'xVlWSS!?" x" --tfa xx i X. X:.,X. ,-XXWtxSS''- 'tJi X.-XlSR?xX "x, . g-?"-". " - .A xJ SLf fixX mi'"? '.v'SiAV 1 -O )o X xK ' "5.-fe ! tl l.y t Ifl lTrJuTM t x xt i 1 ' xJ- .-.fi . i ,wWLitxi.ue.wex. I xrxig?- ?-r5 ,x&oy (, . wrta. x x,. X .X -fcxx x x xv A xx-xx; ' 1. A X i xxx Xi,1XXx. xxXx' "3fX -(xX X Xx: Xxx.vSvxiyxj f?S''-Xxx fx i ivTf i 1 11 tl r; tixfu-i si i xx.- VrOwi - TxxL-i xfc- 'r' Vll-ti! iilTi " "?? 'l"""y glacier, which ta eight sallea from Paradise Valley by road but only a mile and a half by trail. The Nlaqnally river springs full-limbed out of the foot of the - e fcrMsre at Ateqaally rheekiag statloa. from which point one-way travel only la permitted to -ard falls, the next stopping point en route to Paradise Valley. Cars up-bound are TJJJ "e J"""" charge natu the last of each atrtng of eat-bonnd cars sent down by the ranger at narada falls has safely arrived. Note the cars across the bridge waltlnK for the word to T , . ? ' forest near areda falls a bnra of years age. Bnt.most of the fine road ta the park passes through dense forests of living timber. 4 The one-way road from Nlsqually fil JVi" r"T. "' .f he ",de "f " "aln. with net maen room to spare In places like this. Hundreds of feet below rushes the Nlsqually river. 5 Introducing T. H. Mathews, the raager at NUqaally checking station. Here's an attractive bridge in the park, with the Chevrolet in the background. vantage over our own Mount Hood region, almost as richly endowed a wonderland, but whose noblest won ders sre a yet unsung because not ac cessible. The region of Mount Rainier with humblest apologies to Tacoma haa been a national p-fc tinner st reet government n perv isi.m sinrt I !. Tlie lme roaJa, the trails, the hotels and camping grounds are an example of what the government can do In de velopment of a park like this when It seta its mind to it Mount Hood's turn Is coming. The building of the government loop road round it. hy wsy of Government Camp and Hood River, to he completed next year, is the first siey. Though Mount Rainier national park and all its fine hotels are open. Includ ing Paradise Inn, automobiles at this writing cannot -reach Paradise valley because of snow on the last four-mile leg, between Narada Falls and the val ley, of the climb to that beautiful spot. This makes Narada Falls the , present temporary terminus of auto mobile travel. - But by July IS, which is next Tues day, so the park rangers Informed us, they expect to have the last of the snow shoveled off and theroad open all the way to Paradise valley. .Crews of men were then working to clear away the snow. Three weeks ago there was .30 feet of It bn- the road in many places, above Narada Falls. This had been reduced last week to eight feet. So even If-the road is not open exactly on schedule by July 15 it seems safe to say that persons driving -there .this, week-end will find the road open all the way to Paradise Inn. Narada Falls, at an elevation of 4500 feet -and 16 miles from the park en trance, though four miles by road from Paradise valley, is only a mile and a half from it by mule and pack horse trail. Tourists last week were parking their cars at Narada under the efficient protection of Claude Tice, ranger, in charge, and traveling on foot or horse back to Paradise . Inn. Supplies were taken to the inn the same way. This final four-mile stretch from Narada Falls to Paradise - valley is over a most remarkable new . road hewn out of the mountains by the-government. It loops and switchbacks over itself as it climbs some 1000 feet In four miles to Paradise valley, the' limit of horse and motor travel. The grade is nowhere greater than 4 per cent. Perfect Gravel Road. That, in fact. Is the heaviest grade on the government road from the en trance all the way to the valley, with its 5551 feet . of elevation a great achievement in- road building, . for no road ever was built through: a wilder country. All the way from the park entrance the road is as nearly perfect as a gravel road, constantly maintained, can be which means it is as good as any paved boulevard. Always it climbs through the deep forests, past water falls, over torrents and skirting great canyons, till It reaches the Nisqually glacier checking station, about 12 miles within the Park entrance, four miles by road from Narada Falls and eight m'les from Paradis Valley, though only a mile and a quarter straight up over the hills by horse trail to that valley. Here the cold brown snout of Nis qually glacier juts down the canyon, with the wild Nisqually river emerging full grown from it. At the bridge across the Nisqually at this point is the Nisqually checking station, with T. H. Mathews, ranger, in charge. The road from Nisqually checking station to Narada Falls climbs up the hill on the other side of the canyon on a ledge so narrow that , one-way traffic only is permitted, ho cars reaching Nisqually are held there by the ranger until the road is clear above, meaning until no other cars are on the road between it and Narada Falls. This the rangers at the two stations makie sure of by telephone. While .(Cuntluded on Patfb S, Column 2.) . r
