Happy 100th Birthday, National Park Service!

Washington State is blessed with three stunning National Parks: Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic.

The National Park Service turns 100 on August 25, 2016, but the celebrations have already started. All three parks will be hosting a series of free music concerts this summer taking place at various locations within the parks.

The concert series, Music in the American Wild, features a seven-person orchestra that will perform original music especially commissioned to celebrate the National Park Service Centennial. Details will be announced later in the season.

A few other centennial events are outlined below.

Mount Rainier: Ascending to 14,410 feet above sea level, Mount Rainier stands as an icon in the Washington landscape. An active volcano, Mount Rainier is the most glaciated peak in the contiguous United States and spawns six major rivers. Subalpine wildflower meadows ring the icy volcano while ancient forest cloaks Mount Rainier’s lower slopes. Wildlife abounds in the park’s ecosystem.

Join authors, scientists and other speakers as they share their passion for Mount Rainier National Park at the Centennial Speaker Series at Rainier’s Paradise Inn.

For information on the park, and on these and other free centennial events, call 360-569-2211.

• June 14, 8:30pm – author Terry Tempest Williams discusses the meanings of America’s National Parks and reads from her upcoming book, The Hour of the Land: A personal Topograph of America’s National Parks.

• July 21, 8:30pm – scientists will share their park research.

• July 28, 8:45pm – authors Ren and Helen Davis show rarely seen historic pictures taken by the National Park Service’s first photographer, George Alexander Grant, and read from their new book, Landscapes for People.

• August 6, 8:30pm – personal stories of Mount Rainier.

North Cascades National Park – less than three hours from Seattle an alpine landscape beckons. Discover communities of life adapted to moisture in the west and recurring fire in the east. Explore jagged peaks crowned by more than 300 glaciers. Listen to cascading waters in forested valleys and witness a landscape sensitive to earth’s changing climate. North Cascades National Park has many events throughout the summer.

For information on the park, and on these and other free centennial events, call 360-854-7200.

• Newhalem by Night: Enjoy a stroll along the Skagit River to Ladder Creek Gardens with a National Park Service ranger and learn about the history of City Light in the North Cascades. Then, grab your flashlight and join the ranger on the short trail to Ladder Creek Falls where you’ll view the three sets of rushing falls illuminated by multicolored lights that change by the minute. A dinner at Gorge Inn before the tour is optional.

• July-August: Join a ranger talk at Diablo Lake Overlook to learn more about the North Cascades. With nearly one million acres, Olympic National Park encompasses several distinctly different ecosystems and protects a rich mosaic of natural and cultural history. Untamed rivers flow from glacier-capped peaks through valleys of old-growth forests, waves crash against a shoreline rich with life and only trails traverse the vast interior of this internationally recognized wilderness.

For information about the park and free centennial events, call 360-565-3130.

A National Park Service report shows that 7,674,513 visitors to Washington State National Parks spent $470 million in the state in 2015. The spending resulted in 6,364 jobs and had a cumulative benefit to the state economy of $631 million. In addition to our three national parks, Washington state boasts an additional 14 national historic sites and recreation areas.

Consider visiting our national parks this season. www.nps.gov/state/wa/index.htm