SEATTLE — Mount Rainier National Park is reminding visitors how to responsibly visit the park after reports of damage to meadows during the Perseid meteor shower.
The national park posted on Facebook Tuesday that the Perseid meteor shower peak attracted a surge of people to both Sunrise and Paradise visitor areas. The park said it is reviewing reports of damage to the Sunrise wildflower meadows that could have been caused by off-trail travel and improper parking.
According to the park, subalpine wildflowers have just a few weeks to grow and produce seeds and can be destroyed by off-trail travel. Trampled plants may never return and scars on the landscape can take decades to regrow due to the alpine climate.
One photographer, who has been to Mount Rainier National Park several times, said that what he witnessed on Saturday was shocking.
“It was like a party,” said Austin Jackson, who posted pictures of the issues he saw to social media. “There were people yelling and screaming and people over here, people over there.”
Visitors trample meadows, park illegally in Mount Rainier National Park during Perseids peak
Jackson said he had been in the park to shoot the Milky Way. He said carloads of people had come out to watch the Perseid meteor shower and were not following park rules.
“There was a lot of bad parking, a lot of people were getting like double or triple blocked in by other cars,” said Jackson.
But even more concerning was people stargazing from the fragile meadows, home to several types of wildflowers.
“People just hanging out, chatting on the meadow,” said Jackson of what he saw. “There was a couple of places where there were even fires going on in the meadow out there.”
One person who knows the meadows well is Karin Czulik, who couldn't believe what she saw in photos from Saturday night.
“I was horrified,” said Czulik. “Oh, it just like broke my heart.”
Czulik volunteers in the Paradise and Sunrise areas of the park to educate people about staying on the trails and protecting the meadows. She said long-term damage to the wildflowers is sadly possible.
“If they're left alone, then it would still take decades for them to come back, if at all,” said Czulik.
Czulik hopes people will be more careful about following park rules, while Jackson said he hopes more preventative measures will be taken by the park in the future, whether that be limiting the number of people or having more rangers present.
“Anyone who's been to Mount Rainier during the day knows how important it is to stay off of the meadows,” said Jackson. “And they talk about that out there and there are signs everywhere, but at night there's obviously, one ranger can't do a whole lot when there's hundreds of people.”
In a Facebook post, the park shared pictures of overfilled trash cans, trampled meadows, cars illegally parked on vegetation alongside roadways and illegal camping.
The park asks if you plan to visit for night sky viewing to remember the following:
- Stay on trails, in parking lots, and on sidewalks. Do not trample the meadows
- Please do not picnic or set up blankets and chairs or lay in the meadows to view stars
- Park only in designated spots and never park on vegetation
- Pack it in, pack it out. If a trash receptacle is full, please take your trash with you
- Overnight camping is not permitted in parking lots or pullouts. There is no lodging available in the Sunrise area. Please plan where you will be staying after you finish star gazing. Wilderness permits are required for backcountry sites or the nearest vehicle campground at Sunrise is at White River Campground
The park recommends joining a ranger-guided night skies program which is available at Paradise from 9:30 – 11:30 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through Sept. 3.
For more information about protecting high-elevation meadows, visit the National Park Service website at go.nps.gov/meadowpreservation.