Stats
- Vertical: 2560
- Mileage: 10 miles
- Duration: 6 hours
- Weather: mid-60s to mid-70s; light wind; some haze (rockfall dust)
- Takeaway: If I were to take a visitor for one Rainier hike, this would be it
Headed up to Sunrise to hike the Burroughs on a beautiful summer day.
Sunrise Road is freshly paved (nice and smooth!) and the paving project appeared complete (the sign indicating a project thru 7/30 notwithstanding).
This is a classic hike. If I wanted to show a visitor a single representative Rainier trail, I would choose this one. Huge views, unique tundra, and wildlife.
Found a parking spot early in the afternoon (I was lucky; it was very busy, and quite a number of folks were parked on top of meadow areas, which is definitely not cool). The trail is adjacent to the Sunrise concession building, and heads towards Frozen Lake, Fremont Lookout and the Burroughs. The start of the trail has lots of flowers, especially lupine. We did not see nearly as many flowers on the rest of this hike. The trail is steep in spots up to Frozen Lake, and quite dustry (especially with all the traffic today; keep those lens caps on your cameras!). Just past Frozen Lake, you reach the junction for the Fremont Lookup and Burroughs trails, and the crowds start to mercifully disperse towards different destinations. Far fewer folks at 2nd Burrough, and even fewer at 3rd Burrough (I was alone for an extended period). The trail is well-signed at every junction - no real need for a map. The trail is moderate through 2nd Burrough, and slightly more intense up to 3rd Burrough. Leaving Frozen Lake, you ascend above treeline and enter wide-open tundra - starkly beautiful and amazing unobstructed mountain views (there is no shelter - water and sunscreen recommended!).
The hike was a nice contrast to my Spray Park/Echo Rock hike earlier this week (link). One picture below shows Echo and Observation Rocks from the East, with at least a couple glaciers in between - Carbon and Winthrop. Once you reach 3rd Burrough, you will have full-on top-to-bottom views of Winthrop, the split from Liberty Cap into Emmons and Winthrop glaciers high above you, and peek-a-boo views of Carbon glacier ice falls to the West. The trail across the Burroughs is quite dry and dusty with only sporadic flowers (does seem drier than normal, impacting the flowers) , but no bugs to speak of and stunning views. Spray Park to the West was wetter (lots of streams and tarns), crazy flowers, and even crazier bugs. The tundra there is also lusher with succulents, heather and flowers, but more limited views. Both were uniquely beautiful!
We saw quite a number of busy marmots (taking grass and flowers back to rocky homesteads) and a few goats on 3rd Burrough. We hiked up-and-down, with the most significant "up" sections on the return between 3rd and 2nd Burrough, and from Frozen Lake back to the parking lot. You will just want to make sure you have "gas in the tank" for these sections on the return. The 2nd Burrough view down into Glacier Basin and up to the 3rd Burrough is a picturesque contrast of green meadows and stark tundra. The 3rd Burrough vantage is pretty unique for Rainier lower-elevation trails, directly overlooking a nearly top-to-bottom view of the Winthrop glacier with intricate ice falls throughout. We could hear the ice cracking, as well as persistent rockfall above Carbon glacier to the West (and the resulting clouds of dust).
For a longer trip in this area I would recommend: park at the White River campground, hike up to Glacier Basin and explore; backtrack a bit, and head up the (beautiful) trail from Glacier Basin up to the pass between 2nd and 3rd Burroughs; head to 1st Burrough, and just beyond, take the Shadow Lake trail, which will connect with a trail back to White River Campground before you reach the Sunrise parking lot. It is a long loop for sure, but noteworthy in variety, from forests, to meadows to tundra.
Comments
ibcroke on Burroughs Mountain
Fantastic report. Many thanks, AW. Also really like your recommendation for a longer trip in this area. When making the loop from White River campground (hitting Glacier Basin, Burroughs, and Shadow Lake) would you recommend clockwise or counter clockwise?
Posted by:
ibcroke on Jul 14, 2022 09:34 PM
Alpine Wanderer on Burroughs Mountain
Thanks, ibcroke! I did the trip clockwise, but thinking about it, if you want in-your-face views for the majority of the trip, counterclockwise might be the better direction. On the other hand, if you want to time your trip where the light is less harsh on the mountain (i.e., late afternoon), clockwise can work out better timing wise. Either way, you cannot really go wrong :)
Posted by:
Alpine Wanderer on Jul 17, 2022 12:26 PM