Berkeley Park, Skyscraper Mountain — Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021

Stats

• Distance: 10.8 miles
• Duration: 5-1/4 hours
• Vertical: 2400 feet
• Weather: Cool, sunshine, no smoke, marine layer late
• Takeaway: Fall color already?! This is a good trail to get away from the crowds heading up to Fremont Lookout and up the Burroughs. The trail is up and down (map below) and always feels moderate, except perhaps for the final ascent up Skyscraper Mountain from the pass. Once past the Fremont Lookout junction, I only saw a handful of people for the rest of the day. Oh... and make sure you have charged batteries for your camera otherwise you need to make do with phone pics! 

With the smoke and showers behind us, Rainier turned shiny and clean today - renewal!

With a mid-day start, there were plenty of folks leaving and no problem parking at Sunrise. There was also parking at all the major trailheads on the way in. Happy Campers all!

The trail to Frozen Lake via Sourdough Ridge was busy as expected. It was a relief to reach the Fremont Lookout junction, and go straight towards Berkeley Park, away from the hordes heading up to Fremont. The bank of snow on Frozen Lake was especially pretty in the bright sunshine, and periodically calving into the lake. I was actually startled on my return having just passed the lake- how can such a small amount of snow and ice make so much noise falling into the lake! I jumped! Search and Rescue was also carrying someone down from 1st Burroughs about that time, and later when returning on Hwy 410, I saw what was presumably the evacuation helicopter flying quite low over White River. Yes, these trails are rocky (assuming all this was not an elaborate drill). Also on the return, a huge fire plume to the East. I suspect smoke will be back shortly once the onshore flow subsides. Bummer

I had never taken the junction towards Berkeley Park before. I first headed down into Berkeley Park, and then backtracked to the Wonderland Trail junction to head towards Skyscraper Pass, and ultimately the boot path up Skyscraper Mountain. Flowers were quite variable: pretty much past in Sunrise meadows quite unlike my Burroughs trip report, and then prolific in spots along Sourdough Ridge trail, down in shaded and wet areas of Berkeley Park, and on the ascent to Skyscraper Pass. The final ascent up to Skyscraper Mountain was filled with heather and succulents, similar to the trail up to Echo Rock from Spray Park. The summit of Skyscraper is small - luckily I was the only person up there. I was less lucky with the view - the marine layer came in just as I summited. The trail both down into Berkeley Park, and from the Berkeley Park junction to Skyscraper Pass is stunning, teaming with marmots and butterflies. While the flowers on sun-filled slopes were mainly past, I could see from the remnants that the earlier flower show must have been amazing. The views are wide open with near and distant green meadows - this whole area seems prime for wildlife viewing with some binoculars. Yes, there are hints of fall color now... I could not help but feel sad about that! There are also interesting backside views of the Burroughs with Rainier as a backdrop, as well as a view of the (huge) Grand Park.