The Paradise Ice Caves (also known as the Paradise Glacier Caves) were a system of interconnected

glacier cave A glacier cave is a cave formed within the ice of a glacier. Glacier caves are often called ice caves, but the latter term is properly used to describe bedrock caves that contain year-round ice. Overview Glacier caves form in the bottom edge ...

s located within

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier ( ), also known as Tahoma, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The mountain is located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With an off ...

's Paradise Glacier in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. These glacier caves were visited and documented at least as early as 1908. They have a varied natural history, as their size and even existence has changed over time, from a maximum surveyed length of 13.25 kilometers in 1978, to not existing at all during both the 1940s and 1990s due to glacial recession. In 1978 they were the longest mapped system of glacier caves in the world.

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External links

Paradise Ice Caves and Camp Muir

Paradise Ice Caves Tour, Mt. Rainier, ca. 1957
Caves of Washington (state) Glaciology of the United States Mount Rainier National Park Landforms of Pierce County, Washington {{US-cave-stub