Since the early 1900s, people have come to this site for an exceptional view of Mount Rainier. The park road was designed to harmonize with the landscape and take advantage of spectacular vistas like this one. The surrounding scenery has inspired people to explore, to recreate, to connect with heritage, and to fight for the preservation of wilderness. In the mountain’s timeless presence, views like this have inspired a deep and lasting commitment to protect the park and keep it in its original, pristine state. As John Barnett, a former park naturalist, wrote in 1978, the beauty of Mount Rainier is bound up with rivers tumbling from boulder to boulder, a tiny fawn nestling under a shrub, flower fields stretching unending distances, glaciers grinding and tearing at the high mound of rock, and the people drawn to the mountain as surely as if by a great magnet, all separate yet all part of the story of Mount Rainier.