The transition of the forest from its lowland to its extreme alpine type is one of the most interesting features of a visit to the mountain. Entering the park at the western boundary close to the Nisqually River the road skirts the base of the lightly timbered spurs and passes into a forest of large and old Douglas fir and western hemlock. Red cedars grow along the streams that cross the road. Little yew trees and vine maples mingle with the young conifers that form the undergrowth; the gloom of the forest is occasionally relieved by the white bark of alders and the smooth gray stems of the cottonwoods that grow on the sandy bank of the Nisqually. After the road crosses the Rainier Fork, noble fir and amabilis fir appear, but the Douglas fir and western hemlock are still the prevailing species.
Above Longmire Springs the noble and amabilis fir, mixed with western hemlock, become the dominant type. The trees are shorter and the branches heavier. Mountain ash and yellow cypress grow on the margin of the mountain streams. Huckleberry bushes take the place of the taller undergrowth of the valley.
Above Narada Falls the forest is more open, and the trees are still smaller. Mountain hemlock and alpine fir succeed the trees of the lower slope. Little glades and mountain meadows are seen. They become larger and more numerous and the traveler soon enters the open park of Paradise Valley, in which are but scattered groves of trees. The same successive altitudinal types are met in ascending to Moraine and Grand Parks by way of the Carbon Valley, and in following the Mowich watershed, Crater Lake, and Spray Park routes.
Approaching the park from the east the routes pass through open western yellow pine forests and western larch stands. Since Mount Rainier is west of and apart from the summit line, these species which are peculiar to the eastern slope are not found within the limits of the park.
EFFECTS OF FIRE.
Fig. 1.—Whitened spectral monuments of a former forest which was swept by a severe forest fire in 1885. Taken along the road to Camp of the Clouds at an altitude of 5,500 feet.