Tour passes a coal-loading chute built on the edge of a pasture. The railroad parallels the highway. Climbing along a deep valley, the road winds along a cut in the hillside and reaches a wild canyon with stone cliffs among the young second-growth trees.

The Carbon River rises from the Carbon Glacier on the north slope of Mt. Rainier and drains nearby Russell Glacier through Cataract Creek, and then flows northwest to the Puyallup River five miles south of Sumner. In 1876, it was named for the coal deposits found along its upper course. In 1841, Cmdr. Charles Wilkes named it Upthascap River, but that name was not used by subsequent map and chart makers.