[williswall]

Considering "parking patrols" here's an excerpt from a Wonderland update from 2011.... And now back to the parking patrol. After laboring with the poor conditions of the "Wonderland" all day, the most enjoyable times were driving around, making dinner at roadside, filming wildflowers and raging creeks, enjoying the cool breezes and setting sun and the dwindling ice at Reflection lakes. I had it in mind to do some star exposures in the evening between midnight and 2 AM, so we parked at the Kautz Creek lot, us the only ones there, at 9:30 PM. I set the girls up in the truck for snoozing and I laid out on a cot beside it, tripod at the ready for later filming. At 11:30 along comes a ranger, rousting us up and informing us that you can only "camp" at designated camp grounds. Knowing the futility of even discussing this with her, I dutifully packed up, leaving the wide open views of a blazing star filled sky, leaving the bathrooms, the picnic tables, and the trash cans, to go check into Cougar Rock campground at midnight so I could lay on my cot and suck up smouldering camp fire smoke and look up at a severely diminished view due to the trees. Now, I am an advocate for the park rules and understand where they're coming from in this case, but I have slept in my truck a number of times after strenuous and long hikes, both at Sunrise and Longmire, so I never gave this a second thought. I just wonder who makes the decisions to cut needed staff to make hiking Rainier safer and more enjoyable but keeps "parking patrols" to nab dangerous vagrants like myself and 2 teenagers.

[Sculpin]

[Joseph]

My daughter and I crossed the Winthrop Creek bridge on Friday July 27th while hiking the WT. It was the scariest thing I've done and obviously I would rather not have put my daughter in such danger. It was in late afternoon and the water was splashing up on the log and there was no railing at all, no cable to grab onto. We made it, taking baby steps. Not a long crossing, but one slip and its pretty much over. We both were pretty relieved when we made it across. The Park rangers did not really mention anything when we got our permit - just pretty much sent us on our way. I heard a teenage hiker and his father were hiking the WT a couple of days ago, and the teenage son crossed the Winthrop creek bridge with the father behind, but apparently the river dislodged a large rock and that sent a bunch of water over the bridge, causing the father to lose his balance and fall off, to his death. I've searched the news and have found nothing to substantiate, this. The only thing I have is the reports from other hikers on the WT. We hiked from Sunrise to Box Canyon counter clockwise (finishing what we started two years ago - Sunrise to Box Canyon clockwise). Apparently they put a cable up for people to hold onto now- on the Winthrop Creek log bridge. Wish they had done that sooner. The WT will always have danger - there is a pretty sketchy trail washout about 4 miles from Box Canyon in the Steven's canyon area. But these rivers should have bridges that are safe for people to cross, or, people should be clearly informed of the dangers.

[Doc Wallace]

Joseph, thank you for your report. I can confirm that the hiker who died on July 30th was Philip Monsen. He was hiking with his son, Ethan. Both men were very accomplished outdoorsmen, both in great shape. What happened to him could easily happen to anyone. I would assume the details that you've heard were passed along from Ethan. Thank you for your post; it helped some of their friends and family to connect some of the dots that were missing in the first moments of trying to find out what happened when we got word. You are correct that the news and the National Park Service has not widely publicized the story. Here is a link to the obituary: http://www.whitefuneralhomes.com/obituary/philip-monsen And a link to a GoFundMe project that was started to help his wife and four children as they cope with the expenses, and the financial challenges ahead: https://www.gofundme.com/the-philip-monsen-memorial-fund Please, please, please be careful and safe out there, folks. Washington state and our National Parks are beautiful, but experiencing them up close has inherent risks. Let's do our best to minimize or avoid the dangers, as well as to help the Rangers and the National Parks Service stay informed and stay effective. Blessings, Doc Wallace

[slabbyd]

IMO complaining that you can't crash out in the parking lots at MRNP (regardless of how late you planned on staying up) is ridiculous. Considering the quantity of people interested in visiting the park if they tolerated this every parking lot would be crammed in weeks. Reasonable to complain that there's a huge campground behind Longmire that the park service has chose not to open to the public.

[kiliki]

Thanks for the correction on the bridge.

[Bluebird]

I'm a little late to the party. We hiked the WT July 11-18 2014 and the workaround on the road at the White River Campground was as described by a previous poster at that time. So apparently that hasn't changed. The West Fork of the White River however, was a TERRIFYING FORD this July. We hiked from Carbon River through to the Lake Eleanor TH and camped for three nights in the cross country zones near Windy Gap. When we got our XC zone permits I inquired about the river crossings. The ranger told me about Carbon River (which is a piece of cake with a bridge!) and mentioned NOTHING about the West Fork of the White River. We ended up starting our hike early on the last day so we would ideally not be ascending to Grand Park in the heat of the day, and it was fortuitous because even at 945am, the crossing was deep and nearly knocked me over. We spent an hour on the other side making a late breakfast and waiting for pants to dry. During that hour, the water level rose measurably. After returning home, I called the rangers to provide a conditions update, mentioned the dangerous crossing and received a weak/defensive reply of "We know about that crossing and we're warning people about it.". Although no one warned me. A week later that poor woman drowned