#reflection lakes

Many wildflowers are starting to bloom in subalpine areas of the park, though you will still encounter patches of snow and snow-covered trails at higher elevations. A common shrub just starting to bloom in the Paradise area is rosy spirea (Spirea slendens). Rosy spirea typically flowers well into August. The pink flowers will then fade into reddish-brown follicles (a dry fruit containing seeds) in the fall. What wildflowers are you finding in the park?

Please stay on trails to avoid trampling wildflowers as the snow melts from the meadows! There are plenty of opportunities for that perfect mountain + flower shot from the trails.

For updates on what’s blooming where visit https://go.nps.gov/RainierWildflower

Unfamiliar with Mount Rainier’s wildflower species? Check out the wildflower guide at https://go.nps.gov/RainierWildflowerGuide

Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

While alpine lakes in Mount Rainier National Park may seem pristine, they can in fact have elevated levels of mercury as a result of airborne pollutants from as far away as China. How do we know this? With the help of citizen scientist volunteers and dragonfly larvae! Each year, citizen scientists collect larval dragonflies from selected alpine lakes on Mount Rainier as part of the Dragonfly Mercury Project.

Though we tend to think of dragonflies in their flying adult forms, they can spend up to nine years below the surface of a lake or pond in their larval state before sprouting their wings and taking to the air. During this below-water larval period, dragonflies serve as both a predator and prey species, meaning that they both consume mercury present in the water system and pass that mercury up in the food chain as they are eaten by fish, birds, and other predators. Therefore, analyzing the amount of mercury in dragonfly larvae is an excellent way of judging how much mercury is present in a particular lake.