s was known only to the hardy few who delight in
doing difficult things for great rewards. But that day of isolation
has passed. The value of the Park to the whole American people is more
{p.056} and more appreciated by them, if not yet by their official
representatives. While Congress has dealt less liberally with this
than with the other great National Parks, what it has appropriated has
been well spent in building an invaluable road, which opens one of the
most important upland regions to public knowledge and use. This road
is a continuation of the well-made highway maintained by Pierce County
from Tacoma, which passes through an attractive country of partly
wooded prairies and follows the picturesque Nisqually valley up the
heavily forested slopes to the Forest Reserve and the southwestern
corner of the Park. The public has been quick to seize the opportunity
which the roads offered. The number of persons entering the Park, as
shown by the annual reports of the Superintendent, has grown {p.057}
from 1,786 in 1906 to more than 8,000 in 1910. In the same period, the
Yellowstone National Park, with its greater age, its wider
advertising, its many hotels, its abundance of government money,
increased its total of visitors from 17,182 to 19,575.

[Illustration: Sierra Club lunching on Nisqually Glacier. The huge ice
wall in the distance is the west branch of the Nisqually, and is
sometimes miscalled "Stevens Glacier." As seen here, it forms a
"hanging glacier," which empties into the main glacier over the
cliff.]

For one thing, these roads have put it within the power of
automobilists from all parts of the Coast to reach the grandest of
American mountains and the largest glaciers of the United States south
of Alaska. They connect at Tacoma, with excellent roads from Seattle
and other cities on the Sound, as well as from Portland and points
farther south. The travel from these cities has already justified the
construction of the roads, and is increasing every year. Even from
California many automobile parties visit the Mountain. The railway
travel is also fast increasing, and the opening this year of its
transcontinental service by the Milwaukee Railway, which owns the
Tacoma Eastern line to Ashford, is likely soon to double the number of
those who journey to the Mountain by rail.

[Illustration: A Mountain Celery.]

[Illustration: Narada Falls, 185 feet, on Paradise River (altitude,
4,572 feet). Both trail and road