There used to be ice caves at Sunrise in the Mt. Rainier National Park. I used to go there when I was a kid.
Then the 80s and conservatives allowed the forests in Washington to be decimated. Seriously. Mountain after Mountain bald of any trees and life. It was horrible.
It also sped up climate change in Washington.
In the mid 80s those ice caves that had existed for thousands of years started to melt.
By the early 2000s, in the bush boy presidency, the caves were gone. Melted.
The exit sign in highway 410 used to read Sunrise, Ice Caves. Until around 2000. The old sign had to be taken down and replaced with a new one that reads Sunrise, Longmire.
The state had to totally redo Sunrise to block off the area that the ice caves used to exist. The ground is too dangerous for people to walk or stand on.
There are lakes almost at the top of Paradise that are named Reflection Lakes because they USED to reflect Mt. Rainier. Now, there isn't enough water to reflect the mountain and it's been that way for so many years that trees and foliage have grown where water for the lake used to be.
I have taken photos of Mt. Rainier. There is so little snow that the glaciers are now bare of snow and exposed to the sun which is resulting in the glaciers melting.
Mt Rainier is the source for the Nisqually River. It used to be a huge raging river. Especially by the source. It used to supply water for farmers all over the state.
Now I can and have literally stepped over it.
This is Mt Rainier now it is supposed to be totally covered with snow.
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This is the Nisqually River at its source, Mt. Rainier. All the gray area is supposed to be under a very deep, wide and raging river. I literally have stepped over it. As you can see it's been almost gone for so long, trees are now growing where the river once was.
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