National Parks * * * * * 147 



GLACIER NATIONAL PARK 



Glacier National Park is so named because in the hollow of its rugged 

 mountain tops lie more than sixty small glaciers, the remainders of the 

 ancient monsters which once covered all but the highest mountain peaks of 

 this park. It is located in northwestern Montana right up against the 

 Canadian boundary. It is a richly colored land of ruggedly modeled moun 

 tains, enormous, twisting glacier-scooped valleys, precipices thousands of feet 

 high, innumerable rushing streams, and hundreds of lakes of rare beauty. 

 Though all the other parks possess these general features in addition to 

 others which differentiate them each from the other, Glacier Park possesses 

 them in such unusual abundance and happy combination that it is an area 

 of marked individuality. There is no other scenic region with which to com 

 pare it, except the less colorful, colder, and less accessible Canadian Rockies. 

 In richness of beauty it stands alone. 



The fantastic carving of Glacier National Park was the work of the 

 glaciers in the soft rock. From the continental divide descend nineteen 

 principal valleys, seven on the east side and twelve on the west, each of them 

 with many smaller tributary valleys each with its streams, lakes, and glaciers. 

 Many of them have never been explored, unless perchance they were entered 

 by the Indians on their hunting expeditions. There are 250 known lakes in 

 the park, and probably many smaller ones in the wilderness that have never 

 yet been seen. 



Bordering on the park is the reservation of the Blackfoot Indians. The 

 eastern half of Glacier National Park was once included in the Blackfoot 

 reservation, and was purchased from them by the government. The Black- 

 feet, perhaps the finest and most picturesque tribe of Indians in the country 

 today, are seen in the park in their striking costumes and their gaily 

 colored tepees. They are probably the outstanding attraction of the park to 

 many visitors. Over eight hundred saddle horses and pack animals are used 

 in Glacier National Park, as it can be seen adequately only by trips over the 

 mountain trails. Glacier is pre-eminently the trail park of the system, and it 

 is the settled policy of the government not to gridiron it with roads. 



There are several excellent hotels and chalets for the accommodation of 

 visitors to the park, which is reached most directly by the Great Northern 

 Railroad. Motorists will find good roads leading to the park from both the 

 east and the west, and within the park they will have available good campsites 

 as well as the hotels and lodges. 



MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK 



Mount Rainier, towering 14,408 feet above Puget Sound, is the greatest 

 of a group of mountains, remnants of extinct volcanoes, that once played an 

 important part in building the continent out of the ancient seas. These 

 mountains, counting them from north to south, included Mount Baker, Mount 

 Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens, Mount Hood, Mount Shasta, and 

 Lassen Peak. In the distant past, when the continent was in the making, these 

 great volcanoes belched forth millions of tons of lava and ashes, forming not 



