278 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



superlative tourist highway system of the Pacific 

 Coast. Whenever motorists on tour can glide to it 

 over perfect surfacing and find facilities for a com- 

 fortable night's rest before gliding back to the main 

 highways, no doubt we shall hear that Lassen, also, 

 is attracting visitors by very many thousands an- 

 nually. Much will depend on the quality and rates 

 of its hotels. 



The future of Crater Lake appears settled by 

 its loop road, which also touches beautiful Klamath 

 Lake. The great majority of its "visitors" are tour- 

 ing motorists who give it an admiring glance in 

 passing. Still farther north, in Washington, Mount 

 Rainier National Park remains one of the grandest 

 wildernesses in the continent, with Paradise Valley, 

 south of the mountain, its only point of concentra- 

 tion. Extensive road plans to open up the entire 

 west side and penetrate the park from the east sug- 

 gest a future similar to the California parks. The 

 ice-clad volcano is only forty miles from Tacoma 

 and sixty from Seattle, both growing cities. 



We must recognize the patent fact that the en- 

 tire Pacific coast, under California's leadership, has 

 entered the resort business on a great scale as a ma- 

 jor industry, and that its National Parks are merely 

 one of many groups of advertised attractions. Were 

 no National Parks created in its mountains, it is prob- 

 able that its patronage from other states would not 

 be less than now, and that its own inhabitants would 

 be as persistent motorists. 



