Mount Rainier Reopens After a Two-Week Closure

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Mount Rainier National Park reopened Thursday morning after the government shutdown that closed the park’s gates earlier this month.

Park services are in the process of re-opening, said Mary Kay Nelson, executive director of Visit Rainier.

The gates were opened at 9 a.m. Thursday, and the services in the park are “ramping up,” Nelson said.

“Their whole goal was to reopen the park within 24 hours,” she said.

Despite the negative economic impact the shutdown had for the local economy, Nelson said this is not the first time the park has gone through unexpected closures.

“The reality of the industry we are in is that we have to be resilient,” she said.

For the most part, the closures in the past have been weather-related, but the economic downturn also had an impact on the area during the past few years, she said.

“We’ve had to recover and roll with the tide of the economic downturn of 2008,” Nelson said.

In comparison to the last five years, this past season was a successful one, she said.

“The reality was this was a really good summer,” Nelson said.

The shutdown and the last few weeks punctured that progress, but the area will recover, she said.

“We might not be as far ahead as we’d like to be,” Nelson said.



Tanna Osterhaus, who runs Jasmer’s Rainier Cabins, which has been in business in Ashford for 26 years, said the past few weeks have been frustrating.

“If I were a new business, I’d probably feel really devastated,” she said. “But I’ve been down this road more than once.”

After the 1996 government shutdown, she said, they altered their business’ marketing to promote a nice getaway, not just a place to stay while visiting the national park.

“We are always riding the roller coaster of the economy and the weather,” she said.

She said the shutdown of a publicly funded park makes it seem like Mount Rainier is the “king’s forest” and can be closed off to the public due to a government squabble.

“The ridiculousness of (paying) people manning the gates to make sure people don’t enter the gates... It is far beyond what exceeds any brain thought,” Osterhaus said.

At the end of the ordeal, the people most affected by the shutdown are the local businesses and tourists who planned to visit Mount Rainier, she said.

“It’s a substantial impact for my employees,” Osterhaus said. “I am not picking up any new reservations and you got only so much work.”

While the national park has reopened to the public, parts of it have entered a winter shutdown phase as snow has already begun to fall at the higher elevations, according to VisitRainier.com.

Inside the park, Highways 410, 123 and 12, as well as the Nisqually Road to Paradise and Paradise Valley Road have reopened, according to VisitRainier.com. In addition, Stevens Canyon Road as well as the White River Road to White River Campground are open. Sunrise and Mowich roads are closed for the season. The Jackson Visitor Center at Paradise will be open this weekend from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but will only on weekends and holidays. The Carbon River Ranger Station is also open.

Seasonal facility closures now in effect include: the Paradise Picnic Area, Sunrise, Cougar Rock, Ohanapecosh and White River campgrounds and picnic areas, in addition to the Paradise Inn.