Ups and Downs Around Rainier

Rating:
Summary: Family vacation pleasure
Review: Gives the reader a vicarious experience of hiking the 93 mile Wonderland Trail encircling Mt. Rainier, revealing the joys of family response to physical challenges while learning about the human history and natural history of this national park.

Rating:
Summary: Ups and Downs Around Rainier
Review: I am writing as one who has hiked the Wonderland Trail before myself. I found this book a thoroughly enjoyable and authentic portrayal of the rewarding experiences afforded by this 90-mile trail encircling a 14,000' glaciated volcano.

Clear and evocative prose and beautifully structured storyline. The author has quite skillfully woven together the story and dialogue with the different strands of natural, human, and park history; the practical details of tackling such an endeavor; incidents, actions and speech revealing the personal foibles and idiosyncracies of the quirky family depicted in the story; along with the occasional sibling rivalries, spousal frictions and intergenerational conflicts that add human interest and make it real, while delivering a wealth of intriguing and useful background on the Wonderland Trail in particular and the Park in general. A good read for the arm chair hiker, anyone (especially a family) contemplating this or a similar adventure themselves, or those interested in learning more about Mount Rainier National Park in a narrative format.