Changes at Mt Rainier -- road closed Tues, Weds

The good news from this announcement:  "Highways 123 and 410, and the Stevens Canyon Road east of Paradise, and the White River, Sunrise, and Mowich Lake Roads are now closed to vehicle access for the winter, but remain open to winter recreation."   Do you have to walk in from Crystal to Sunrise or may you sled?

Snowmachine usage has been allowed on the White River road -- up to the White River campground turn off. Continuing to Sunrise on a snowmachine would be against the NPS rules -- not sure what the penalty would be if you went past that point.

How hard is it to just leave the gate open all winter?  why does the park feel like they need to protect the park from the public every night during the winter?  ...

Within the park the NPS rangers are the law -- so if the road is open they have a responsibilty to patrol it, enforce speed limits, arrest DUI drivers, render assistance in the event of accidents, etc, etc.

If the road was left open -- but the law enforcement officers were off duty -- I would expect that the park would soon become a magnet for all sorts of mayhem -- I'm sure there would be attempts to snow machine to Camp Muir for example and that might be the least of it -- e.g. the tragic event on 1/1/2012

"not sure what the penalty would be if you went past that point."

DEATH!

Many of us who know the Park have been waiting for something like this.  They cite low visitation on Tuesday and Wednesday; I'm sure it is low--almost all the people I used to ski with in the park stopped coming because of unreliable gate opening times.  Who wants to take off work only to wait for a very late, or no, gate opening.  Last year, of course, they seemed to implement a new policy of immediate closure when someone is lost, one that continues till searches are suspended.  They also implemented more frequent closures for avalanche danger and bad weather than I've ever seen before.

What is surprising is that they still have to plow the road (or they would lose access to Paradise and lose the Nisqually Bridge),  they still have to have employees at the Park entrance, and they still have to have LEOs on duty.  So what is the big savings?  What is the intended purpose: further reduce winter visitation?  Will they indeed have more dependable gate openings or just further days lost to weather or avalanche danger or searches for lost people?  So, opportunities for winter recreation will be curtailed about 30% by the two day closure, and what another 30% by other contingencies?  And, of course, we have the upcoming much-needed repairs to the road to Paradise--when? I don't know, but I expect a full closure sometime in the fall like they closed Stevens Canyon Road.

What surprises me is that there was no call for public comment.  Every major decision in other federal agencies that affects the public is subject to public review.  This would seem to be a major amendment to their General Management Plan and should be subject to NEPA review procedures. Unlike the the National Forests, the parks don't seem to have to have public advisory committees.  Mt. Rainier NP has been in sore need of a citizen-recreationist advisory committee for quite some time.  For example: unpredictable gate openings; premature plowing of the Westside Road and Paradise Valley Road; plowing then closing the Paradise Valley Road in the spring when bc skiing used to be greatest; closing the snowplay area the week before school breaks; etc.

I suspect they did consult with the Inn and Restaurant owners and the Concessionaires; their slowest days must be Tuesday and Wednesday also (but OMG! keep Monday for our weekend renters!); of course the Longmire Inn will stay open. Will the climbing concessionaires be given access during the closures as they were when the entire road to Paradise was closed for months awaiting culverts from Arizona?

The big question is: Are enough people interested in this and willing to take the time to write their Congresspersons and Senators?  I doubt it.  But that is the only hope--and with a national political climate of reduce the deficit and the looming sequestration, the Park couldn't have chosen a better time to pull this off.

Just read this, and was going to rage post, but found I was beaten to it.  Now all I got left is:

[size=18pt]THANKS OBAMA[/size]


With that out of the way a possible upshot is they mention they are going to "try" to have the road open by 7:00am this year.  Also, it appears they will "close" (whatever that means) camping above Paradise on Tuesday and Wednesday, so there's a disincentive to longer camping stays.  I understand where they're coming from, but I don't have to like it.

FWIW, I doubt that Obama, Biden, or Ken Salazar (USDI Sec) even know about it.  What I do know, is that the Republican Congress has been calling for budget reductions for years, has not been passing full budgets at all (continuing resolutions, etc., that don't account for increasing costs, like fuel), has been making noises about privatization of public lands since Reagan was President, and engineered this upcoming sequestration, which if it occurs, would make a significant cut in the Park's budget. I suspect it won't occur, but there will be significant budget cuts to all non-military-industrial-complex budgets except for maybe one or two of the earned-benefit programs (SS & Medicare); the federal employees have been taking it in the shorts for years, including no pay raises in the last few years and less-than-promised before that; I suspect you will begin to see substantial non-military lay offs (although, one major employer, the Forest Service was decimated under Bush with 30+% of employees gone).

That said, I would like to see Mt. Rainier NP run by a private, non-profit, public-service group, rather than the Park Service; they never wanted it anyway

i've largely given up on Rainier as a day-trip destination in the winter....echoing what Andrew Carey said, taking the time to drive to Rainier only to roll the dice on whether half (or all) your day will be spent waiting for a gate to open at Longmire is a pretty big deterrent for folks that have other options within a couple hour's drive.   

Really sucks for people wanting to knock out a winter/spring climb though....decent weather windows are already tough enough to take advantage of.

"The area above Longmire will be closed to overnight camping on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because safe road access won't be available."

So, my take on the above is that camping up high will be against the rules anywhere accessed from above Longmire Monday, Tues, and Wed nights?    There isn't road access to the White River or Mowich Lakes sides in the winter, but folks can (at least I hope they can) still head in there and camp.  Thats some pretty serious bullshit....if folks want to camp above Paradise during the days the road is closed, just put in an additional gate on the road at Paradise so they can't drive their car down. Isn't there a pay phone in the restroom alcove at Paradise? if there's an emergency, people could still access 911 or call a ranger without having to wait two-three days.