Yesterday my husband and I decided it was time to head for the Carbon River...I haven't been there since December with our daughter. That was a month after the devastating flooding in Mt. Rainier Nat'l Park in the 1st week of November, 2006. (18 inches of rain in 3 days.) Much of the park is still in recovery, but this entrance and road may never be replaced. The damage was too extensive and it may happen again this fall. It seems to washout every few years, but last year was the worst ever. Since the road into the park is closed at the entrance, we have to walk 3-5 miles just to get to trailheads that we were able to drive to before. Yesterday we walked 3 miles to get to the Ranger Falls/Green Lake trail. Here are a couple of photos taken on a half-mile stretch of road, or what used to be road, on the way to our destination. The trail you see here is parallel to where the road became river. The water washed away 6 to 8 ft. (some places more) of soil and rock and caused many, many trees to go down. The vertical wall you see here is the root ball to a 6 ft. diameter Douglas fir that went over, taking much forest with it. This normally dark rainforest is now cleared out allowing the light onto the forest floor.