Mount Rainier National Park Archives Photo of the Eastside Highway Tunnel, 1940-41.
Also known as State Route (SR) 123, the Eastside Highway is a 13.8-mile-long road that connects the park’s southeast entrance near Ohanapecosh to the Mather Memorial Parkway (SR410) at Cayuse Pass. During the 1920s, Washington State constructed a road from the south to the park’s southeast entrance as well as a road on the north side to connect to the town of Naches on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range. In 1931, the park boundary expanded to include the Ohanapecosh area and the Naches Pass Highway, which was completed and renamed the Mather Memorial Parkway in 1932. The Eastside Highway was not completed until 1940, the roads meeting at Cayuse Pass and becoming the first through-road in the park. As the road approaches Cayuse Pass, some retaining walls are 25 feet high, among the highest in the park.
Mount Rainier National Park Archives Photo of the Eastside Highway opening ceremony, held at the tunnel, 6/16/1940.
The Eastside Highway Tunnel was built in 1939 and is 507-feet-long with portals clad in masonry. Plants and trees were later added around the portals to help the tunnel further blend into the landscape, a tenet of NPS Rustic design. It is the only tunnel along this road and one of three tunnels in the park (the other two are along Stevens Canyon Road). The Eastside Highway and its tunnel are both contributing structures in the Mount Rainier National Park Historic Landmark District.
NPS Photo of the Eastside Tunnel in 2015 with mature plantings around the tunnel portal.
Do you enjoy the drive along the Eastside Highway and going through the tunnel?
~kl
