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The Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park, home of the park's main visitor center and its largest hotel, has been without running water and restrooms this weekend.
No water or restrooms are currently available at Paradise and Narada Falls due to issues caused by a recent heavy rain event affecting the water system," the national park wrote on its website.
A weather station at Paradise shows the area has had essentially no rain — 0.04 inches — in the past week, according to data collected by the Northwest Avalanche Center. The area got close to 1 inch of rain Sept. 6.
An operator at the Paradise Inn confirmed the century-old, 121-room hotel and the nearby Henry M. Jackson Visitor Center were without water Saturday. He did not have an estimate for when water service might return.
Timed reservations have been required this summer around Mount Rainier in an effort to deal with the park's surging popularity, although reservations haven't been required to be at Paradise.
Mount Rainier National Park had 2.5 million visitors last year, its second-most ever. The park's top four years ever, in terms of visitors, have been the past four years.
Joellen Wilhelm, of Olympia, arrived at the park on Friday afternoon, aiming for a weekend camping trip with her husband and son. But campsites at Cougar Rock were already filled, so they ended up camping outside the park. After a morning hike Saturday, they arrived at Paradise on Saturday afternoon.
Wilhelm said the concessionaire at Paradise Inn was still selling food, which she found odd. But they had sold out of bottled water.
An employee at the gift shop said they'd been without water since 5 p.m. Friday. Wilhelm asked how they'd been going to the bathroom. "We go to the woods," was the response. "And tonight we’re probably going to find a lake to swim in so we can take a bath."
When Wilhelm exited the park around 4 p.m. Saturday she said there was a mile-and-a-half-long line of cars waiting to get in.
She said she looked back to see a digital message board. It read: "No toilets in Paradise.
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