I highly recommend this hike for easy access, great views, and scenic alpine meadows. The hike is not very strenuous and can easily be completed in a half day.

We went to Grand Park through the "back door" and started at Lake Eleanor trail head. We parked just after Eleanor creek at mile post 10 and there were only 2 other cars there on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Within 100 yards of being on the trail, we entered the National Park boundary. Right after entering the park, the trail is pretty wet and muddy for the next 50 feet. After that, the trail is in great shape all the way.

It didn't take long to get to Lake Eleanor, and we took a left at the group campsite and headed upward over a little ridge. We traveled downhill for a bit until we reached a creek and the trail started heading back upwards. We approached the first meadow and still hadn't seen anyone on the trail. After 1 hour and 20 minutes moving at a moderate pace, we finally reached the beginning of the Grand Park meadow.

The trail is fairly flat through the meadow, and the path is pretty sandy/silty. If I were to do this again, I'd wear gaiters (as the soil and sand kept kicking up into our boots). We had to stop every 20 mins or so to dump the sand out of our boots. It was deathly calm up there, and clear with beautiful views of Rainier.

There was only a trace of snow in sparse parts of the meadow where it had lightly sprinkled the week before. I imagine this hike will be accessible for at least a few more weeks, but it might be a good idea to call the ranger station to make sure they don't close the gate about 6 miles in to Forest Road 73.

Public Link to all the photos here: https://www.facebook.com/me[…]amp;l=74915b56ff&type=1

For a long time, Grand park and Berkeley park were on my "To Do" list. Both places, ideally, deserve their own separate hikes. However, given the short summer and the late meltout this year, we wanted to optimize as much as we could.

Initially, thought of starting from Seattle early Saturday morning, and hiking to Grand park via Berkeley valley. But that would have been a 16 mile roundtrip hike, too much of a marathon for us short sprinters.

We then thought of starting with Grand park from the backdoor (trail head to lake Eleanor) and then hiking to Berkeley park and back. Even this one, as I understood, was about 14 miles roudtrip .... something that we're not quite used to.

Somehow we wanted to visit both, Berkeley as well as Grand park, without hiking more than 10 miles. After some thought, we decided on a plan (we'd done something similar in the past when hiking sour dough gap-crystal lake):

- We drove 2 cars (it was 5 of us together) and parked one car at the Grand park backdoor entry point.
- Drove the 2nd car to sunrise visitor center and started hiking to Grand Park via Berkeley valley.
- From Grand park, instead of returning to sunrise, we hiked via Lake Eleanor to the back door entry point where one of our cars had been parked. From there, drove back to sunrise to pick up our second car.

This itinerary was about 9.5 miles of hiking, thus, saving us 5-7 miles of additional hiking. Also, sunrise visitor center is at 6400 ft, Berkeley park must be at about 5800 ft, Grand park 5600 ft, and the back door entry point at 4500 ft. So basically, our hike was mostly a descent starting at 6400 ft and ending at 4500 ft (there were small portions of ascent in between, particularly a 30-minute ascent from Berkeley park campground to Grand park, but still much less than any of the other alternatives).

There were some downsides as well to this plan: Not very fuel efficient of course. Plus we spent an additional 90 minutes driving time (45 + 45, to and fro) between the trail head and tail. Stronger hikers may choose to hike the additional few miles instead of wasting time and fuel driving!

About the actual hike: It was very very beautiful. Start to the hike was auspicious with the great mountain, as always, looking splendid from sunrise. Then, there was the flower exhibition at Berkeley park. Simply mind-blowing. The valley was a plethora of colors: Whites, yellows, pink, purples ... they were all there to add to the lush green meadows. Unfortunately, none of the 1.5 gigs of pics I took on the hike came close to capturing what my eyes saw .... but that was only because of my limited capabilities with the camera. And did I mention the fragrance .... how could one ever capture the scent of the flowers! Simply put, just experience it for yourself.

Grand park was amazing too. Combine the vast landscape with extreme close views of Rainier means you really cannot ask for more. But if I have to still get greedy, then I was a little disappointed because we got late arriving at Grand park (we reached at almost 3 pm) and the direction of the sun meant that we did not get to experience the true grandeur of the park (maybe another limitation of the approach we took, instead of hiking straight to grand park in the morning). I was always aware that those early hours of the morning were the best time to be here, but ultimately you can't gain on everything can you! Some other day maybe, I'll get here close to sunrise time.

But anyway, it was a beautiful hike, not too tiring on the body, with plenty to offer. It is hikes such as these that make us wish for a longer Pacific Northwest summer. Make hay while the sun shines!

PS - I'm usually quite resistant to mosquitoes and flies. But this hike really tested my endurance/patience on that aspect (in spite of carrying a repellent). Would therefore say that not carrying a strong repellent on this hike is a strict NO-NO.
   

Berkely Park is close to full grandure and the hike down into Grand Park is spectacular. We were fortunate to see the Cinnamon Bear eating the flora long enough to get a big "Bear Jam" (See Photo). Grand Park has mosquitos so bring pleanty of Deet! If you like flowers don't miss out on at least the Berkely Park part of this hike.

Amazing hike. Grand Park is awesome and the hike was not incredibly difficult. Be prepared to hike through short swamps that are unavoidable. There is just a bit of snow left on the ground but not much. Other than that this trail is great.

Mosquito feeding frenzy, hike with spray at hand.

Direction updates: once you are on 73 just stay on the main road (directions indicate a turn). The "bridge" indicated next to the trail head is hard to recognize as a bridge and sign has been ruined. If you hit mile marker 10 you have gone just a bit too far.