New exhibits at Mount Rainier’s Sunrise Visitor Center

NATIONAL PARKS — Mount Rainier National Park has revealed a $600,000 upgrade to the Sunrise Visitor Center for visitors to enjoy this season. Sunrise opened for the season last week.

Patti Wold, project manager, told the Tacoma News-Tribune the exhibits were developed with the help of the U.S. Geological Survey, area Indian tribes and National Park Service staff. Among the challenges were developing low-tech displays, since power at Sunrise is supplied by a generator, as well as items that can withstand the freeze-thaw cycle of life at 6,400 feet.

“One of the most interesting exhibits is an actual cutaway of the ground, a 100-inch tall column showing the layers of dirt, volcanic deposits and development of the present-day cone,” reports Jeffrey P. Mayor, the TNT’s outdoor writer. “The display shows the strata of the ground going back about 8,000 years,” Wold said.