Tom Dempsey captured this photo of Mt. Rainier (14,411 feet/4392 meters) from Mazama Ridge in Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, during mid-October when huckleberry bushes turn red. From Paradise, hike the scenic Lakes Trail counterclockwise (5.5 miles with 1600 feet gain) to Reflection Lakes along Stevens Canyon Road (an alternative starting point), then up Mazama Ridge and back via Myrtle Falls. (Those with extra energy should extend the loop via Skyline Trail to Panorama Point.) Left to right are Wilson Glacier, Nisqually Glacier, Muir Snowfield, Camp Muir, Paradise-Stevens Glacier, Cowlitz Glacier, Ingraham Glacier, and Whitman Glacier. This image was stitched from 9 overlapping images. Global warming and climate change: Mount Rainier’s glaciers shrank 22% by area and 25% by volume between 1913 and 1994 in conjunction with rising temperatures (Nylen 2004). As of 2009, monitored glaciers are continuing to retreat (NPS). Over the last century, most glaciers have been shrinking across western North America (Moore et al. 2009) and the globe (Lemke et al. 2007) in association with increasing temperatures.
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