Glacier Basin (5,945') is located 3.1 miles from Glacier Basin Campground in Mount Rainier National Park. This moderate trail follows an old mining road into subalpine meadows at the base of Inter Glacier. Though the trail officially ends at Glacier Basin Camp, a well-defined path continues .75 miles to the glacier, one of two standard climbing routes on Mount Rainier.

The cobbled channel of Inter Fork is a good example of 'Aggradation', a process by which glacial river beds are filled with rock

Paintbrush roots (genus Castilleja) have specialized parts called haustoria, which attach to the roots of other plants and draw away nutrients

Subalpine parklands ring Mount Rainier from 5,000' - 7,000', an airy ecosystem between forest line and treeline characterized by clustered tree stands and herbaceous meadows

Inter Glacier is a small cirque glacier wedged between the Emmons and Winthrop glaciers

'Lahar' is an Indonesian term that describes large scale debris flows down the slopes of a volcanoes, and which typically funnel through a river valley

Moderate, consistent grades make the Glacier Basin Trail ideal for families and runners

An area of fragile alpine wetlands can be found above Glacier Basin Camp; though these cover a very small portion of the Park, they support high amounts of biodiversity

St Elmo Pass can be seen along the upper NW valley wall, just over which is Winthrop Glacier

Subalpine meadows, which may be snow-covered through late June, have short growing seasons that can drive spectacular all-at-once blooms.

Though officially unmaintained, a well-defined and heavily used climbers' trail leads from Glacier Basin Camp to the base of Inter Glacier

Glaciers form where more snow accumulates than is lost each year; the weight of new accumulation compresses older layers into ice, adding weight and thickness that perpetuate the growth cycle

The lux meadows of Glacier Basin are known to attract bear, elk and goat

The ablation zone is located in the lower part of a glacier where more snow is lost than accumulates

The climbers' trail rises approximately 705' in just .75 miles from Glacier Basin Camp to the base of Inter Glacier

Mount Rainier features over 260 miles of maintained trails