The hiking trails from Sunrise Visitor Center at Mt. Rainier are open only for three months of the year from July-September. I went there one weekend to climb to the Second Boroughs mountain from there and fell in love with the place.
In fact, I liked it so much that I went there again the next weekend. We started at 4 am in the morning in order to reach before sunrise. We were rewarded with clear skies turning orange and then blue. Mt. Rainier itself changed shades from pink, to orange, to yellow and then ultimately white.
The trek itself consisted of taking the Sunrise trail from the visitor center. The trail drops about 200 feet to meet the Wonderland trail which passes through meadows covered with wild flowers: a riot of colours on the green grasses. There are tall trees growing in the meadows and the place looks like something out of a fairy tale book illustration.
In fact, I liked it so much that I went there again the next weekend. We started at 4 am in the morning in order to reach before sunrise. We were rewarded with clear skies turning orange and then blue. Mt. Rainier itself changed shades from pink, to orange, to yellow and then ultimately white.
The trek itself consisted of taking the Sunrise trail from the visitor center. The trail drops about 200 feet to meet the Wonderland trail which passes through meadows covered with wild flowers: a riot of colours on the green grasses. There are tall trees growing in the meadows and the place looks like something out of a fairy tale book illustration.
The meadows found here are similar to the ones found in the Tundra region of the Arctic and hence are extremely sensitive to human activity. Walking on these meadows destroys them and it can take decades to repair the damage. Hence, it is important to stay on the trails.
The meadows end just past Shadow Lake from where there is steady ascent of about 900 feet to the top of the First Burroughs mountain. As we climbed, the valley of the White River lay to our left and Mt. Rainier was always in front majestic as I had never seen before. The weather at Mt. Rainier is very fickle and we were very lucky to see Mt. Rainier's summit against blue skies.
At the top of the First Burroughs mountain we stood on the ridge between the First and Second Burroughs mountains, we could see the valley of Lodi Creek on our right as we faced Mt. Rainier with Emmons Glacier to our 10 o' clock.
Then on its another 300 feet of climbing to the top of the Second Burroughs mountain. The view here is just awesome. We use "awesome" very lightly sometimes, but this is one place where the word truly applies. Any superlatives that I could use to describe the vista are completely justified.
The meadows end just past Shadow Lake from where there is steady ascent of about 900 feet to the top of the First Burroughs mountain. As we climbed, the valley of the White River lay to our left and Mt. Rainier was always in front majestic as I had never seen before. The weather at Mt. Rainier is very fickle and we were very lucky to see Mt. Rainier's summit against blue skies.
At the top of the First Burroughs mountain we stood on the ridge between the First and Second Burroughs mountains, we could see the valley of Lodi Creek on our right as we faced Mt. Rainier with Emmons Glacier to our 10 o' clock.
Then on its another 300 feet of climbing to the top of the Second Burroughs mountain. The view here is just awesome. We use "awesome" very lightly sometimes, but this is one place where the word truly applies. Any superlatives that I could use to describe the vista are completely justified.
While returning back we took the fork to the Burroughs Mountain trail that leads back to the Sunrise Visitor Center past Frozen Lake. The descent is a total of 1000 feet with about 500 feet dropped going from the top of Second Burroughs Mountain to Frozen Lake and about 400 feet dropped in the last quarter mile to the trail head at the visitor center.
Here is link to the topographic map for those interested.
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=46.91094&lon=-121.67636&datum=nad27&u=4&layer=DRG&size=l&s=50
Also, to better understand what I am talking about, take a look at the photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/samir.govilkar/SunriseTrailTrek2
Here is link to the topographic map for those interested.
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=46.91094&lon=-121.67636&datum=nad27&u=4&layer=DRG&size=l&s=50
Also, to better understand what I am talking about, take a look at the photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/samir.govilkar/SunriseTrailTrek2
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