Recently, Mount Rainier National Park announced that they would be restricting access to Paradise to weekends only for the 2022-23 winter season.
Mount Rainier is Washington's most famous mountain and Paradise has been, since the early 20th century, an iconic winter destination for families, sledders, snowshoers, mountaineers, skiers, and snowboarders. It offers dazzling winter views of the mountain, a deep snowpack, and plenty of fun terrain for all ability levels. We are disappointed to see this reduction in access. As we too frequently see, once access is lost, it almost never returns.
Mount Rainier National Park has been vague about the reason behind the closure, loosely citing "staffing limitations". We would love to see more transparency from public agencies about decisions that affect many users like this. We are actively trying to communicate with the national park and other related groups like the Washington National Parks Fund.
We know you may be frustrated. The best thing you can do is contact your state senators and representatives about this, expressing how important Paradise is to you and others in the community.
Washington senator contacts:
Patty Murray - https://www.murray.senate.gov/write-to-patty/
Maria Cantwell - https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/contact
Finally, we ask you to be respectful to Mount Rainier National Park Employees. They are also unhappy to see reduced access, but hopefully together we can make a difference.
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