The road to Paradise at Mount Rainier National Park opened at 8 a.m. for the first weekend since Jan. 14, when seven people became lost in severe storm conditions.

Three day hikers on snowshoes survived two frigid nights on the mountains, including two featured in today’s News Tribune, while two campers and two mountaineers still have not been found.

The search for the missing four is now considered a “extended, limited, continuous search,” but as many as eight park rangers are searching the Muir Snowfield today for signs of the people.

With the first large group …

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On Saturday morning at 10 a.m. the Foothills Trail kiosk in Orting will be  dedicate in honor of one of the men instrumental in building the structure.

The kiosk will be named in honor of Stan Engle, who led the fundraising effort for the structure as the Foothills Trail Coalition’s treasurer for more than 15 years.  Engle, also a member of the Tacoma Mountaineers and the Audubon Society, died in 2009 at the age of 87.  The structure, which displays a map of the 15-mile Foothills Trail and other information, will be named the Stan Engle Orting Kiosk.

The body of a man who fell Monday while taking pictures at Mount Rainier National Park was recovered this morning, a park spokesman confirmed.

Roger Alan Wagner, a 59-year-old man from Florida, slipped and fell about 40 feet into Van Trump Creek on Monday evening while visiting the park with his son, 31-year-old John Wagner.

Park spokesman Kevin Bacher said it was immediately evident Wagner did not survive the fall.

“He was submerged and not responding,” Bacher said.

Wagner fell about 7:15 p.m. and park officials were able to respond quickly to the scene, but by the time they arrived …

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The hiker who took a fatal fall near Snoqualmie Pass was William Allen of Puyallup, the King County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed this afternoon.

Allen was a 21-year-old science student at the University of Washington and a graduate of Emerald Ridge High School on South Hill.

Allen fell about 100 feet to his death Monday morning on Kaleetan Peak in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness north of Snoqualmie Pass.

The medical examiner’s office has determined his death to be an accident and the result of several injuries suffered during the fall.

The hiker who took a fatal fall near Snoqualmie Pass on Monday was from Puyallup, according to multiple sources. The 21-year-old was a University of Washington student who graduated from Emerald Ridge High School.

The man’s name has not yet been released by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office and an investigator said his name is not likely to be released until this afternoon.

The hiker fell about 100 feet to his death Monday morning on Kaleetan Peak, a rocky 6,259-foot peak just north of Snoqualmie Pass in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

Gifford Pinchot National Forest officials just announced they have increased the fire warning level. The impact on the general public will be minimal, however.

Forest officials said the Industrial Fire Precaution Level has moved from Level I to Level II, increasing restrictions for work on the Forest.

The only effect on the general public is a restriction on the use of chainsaws. The new restriction means chainsaws may not be run from 1-8 p.m.

The Gifford Pinchot National Forest fire danger rating is now at moderate.

Camp fires should be completely extinguished before departing camp at any time. Keep a …

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From Olympic National Park:

The Jefferson County Public Works Department has announced that repairs to the Willoughby Creek Bridge, on Upper Hoh Road near milepost 3.5, will start on August 1.

Access to the Hoh Rain Forest of Olympic National Park will remain open throughout the repair work, but some traffic delays are anticipated.

According to Jefferson County officials, the repair work will require a limited number of one-hour closures. These one-hour closures are scheduled to occur starting August 8 through August 11, and will only occur between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

Jefferson County, which maintains

…

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Mowich Lake Road in the northwest corner of Mount Rainier National Park will open to the public on Friday.

In average snow years, the road would have been opened by the Fourth of July weekend.

This year, however, has been far from normal. Three to four feet of snow remain in the area, but the parking lot is clear and some picnic tables are melted out, said a park news release.