Some facts about Mount Rainier Some facts about Mount Rainier St. Helens makes more noise, but Mount Rainier is easily the state's most famous mountain. Its likeness or name appears on millions of license plates, beer bottles and postcards as well as hundreds of buildings and logos for businesses, including one baseball team. Mount Rainier is the highest volcano in the Cascade Range, which extends from Mount Garibaldi in southwest British Columbia to Lassen Peak in Northern California. Rainier is one of five Washington volcanoes currently between eruptions. Adams, Baker, St. Helens and Glacier Peak are the others.
Scientists call Mount Rainier a composite volcano, or stratovolcano.
These volcanoes have steep sides and symmetrical cones built by alternating layers of lava flows, volcanic ash and cinder. Mount St. Helens is also a composite volcano. Mount Rainier National Park was closed for several days because of ash dusting and muddied water. Mount Rainier's summit is formed by two small, overlapping craters, each about a quarter-mile in diameter. The shallow floors of the craters are filled with snow and ice, but the raised rims stay snow-free because of high winds and warm ground.