National Park of Mount Rainier

Location: Washington
Established: March 2, 1899
Size: 235,625 acres (93,354 hectares)

One of the world's most massive volcanoes, Mount Rainier can dominate the skyline for 100 miles (161 kilometers) before you reach the park named after it. At nearly three miles (4.8 kilometers) in height, Mount Rainier is the tallest peak in the Cascade Range; it dwarfs 6,000-foot (1,829-meter) surrounding summits, appearing to float alone among the clouds.

Mount Rainier may be the centerpiece of the national park, but it is hardly the only attraction. Here, less than three hours' drive from Seattle, you can stroll through seemingly endless fields of wildflowers, listen for cracking glacier debris, wander among trees more than a thousand years old. The park's convenient location, however, also leads to weekend traffic jams, both summer and winter, and guarantees you company on popular trails.

Mount Rainier is the offspring of fire and ice. Still active, it was probably born more than a half million years ago, on a base of lava spewed out by previous volcanoes. Lava and ash surged out of the young volcano's vent thousands of times, filling the neighboring canyons and building up a summit cone, layer by layer, to a height of some 16,000 feet (4,877 meters).

Even while Mount Rainier was growing, glaciers carved valleys on and around the mountain. The 25 major glaciers here form the largest collection of permanent ice on a single U.S. peak south of Alaska.

Mount Rainier's summit deteriorated over time, but eruptions in the last 2,000 years rebuilt it to its current height of 14,410 feet (4,392 meters). The mountain last erupted about a century ago.