Steamboat Prow has always intrigued me. It’s a prominent feature strikingly visible from many locations. Super aptly-named as well. It’s been on my list for a awhile and today was the perfect day to check it out.

Weather was sublime. Not too hot, not too cold, light warm breeze. Could not have been any better.

My plan was to do somewhat of a lollipop loop up Glacier Basin Trail, then take the climber’s trail from GB Camp to Ruth and the Prow. Returning via the Emmons Moraine ‘trail’ which I never really found until the end. When they say it’s “not maintained” they mean it. More on that later.

Started up the Glacier Basin trail at 8:30am. GB trail was immaculate, and a nice, smooth, mellow warmup. Soon I was at GB Camp where wide open views begin, and remain for the duration of the trip. The scenery is stunning and just gets better every step of the way.

From GBC I took the climber’s trail spur south and easily hopped across the Inter Fork. The trail was in great shape and easy to follow. It’s steep and sandy, and gravelly in spots, but the recent rains really improved the tread. Firm and grippy as opposed to loose and dusty.

After about a mile of steep climbing the trail mellows out cresting the moonscape ridge of the Emmons moraine where Little Tahoma first appears in whole, all at once. It’s quite a shock and resembles nothing “little”. The whole area up here just seems huge, vast, and endless. The Emmons Glacier is gigantic, its crevasses massive, and this late in the season looks like a stormy sea of ice stuck in time.

It was here that the glacier soundtrack kicked in and was on full repeat for the rest of my duration above 6800’. The white noise of rushing water peppered with the echoing sounds of rockfall and cracking ice combined with the visuals was full sensory overload.

Trekking up to Ruth starts mellow and steepens into a chossy, rocky landscape. I lost the ‘trail’ a few times here as it diverts north away from the ridge a bit. Any way up would probably ‘work' but it’s a bit of a game of choose your own adventure while trying to find a path of least resistance. The rock was fairly loose in this area as well which made travel tedious, but I would find an easier path on the descent.

Finally topped out on Ruth, and views were jaw-dropping -especially looking up the tantalizing route to the Prow. Knowing that the views would only improve from here, I didn’t linger long. Grabbed a quick snack and some water and got moving.

There is a pretty minor cliff feature to descend along the way. From other reports I’d read, I thought it was going to be a bigger deal. I found it to be pretty short and routine class 3. Maybe 20 feet, good holds, not much exposure.

From the mini-cliff, the trail continued over snow-free, arid, gravelly path. The geology in this area is so cool. It’s a myriad of colors (red, pink, yellow, orange), and full of volcanic artifacts. The Inter Glacier (what’s left of it) was pretty bare and sad-looking. I could see how it would make for an epic glissade in the right conditions.

My pace slowed as I continued up, feeling the altitude a bit, and just in awe of the scenery & solitude. Nobody at Camp Curtis, or Camp Schurman that I saw. Not surprising this time of year. Gaping crevasses dominate the icy landscape everywhere you look.

Finally topped out at 1pm, still amazed at how perfect the weather was. There were several craggy, cliffy spires I explored. And from here the Winthrop Glacier comes into full view for the first time, flanking the west side of the Prow. Combined with Emmons, it definitely gives you that “bow of a ship” feel, like a steamboat cleaving the ice into its 2 glaciers.

As I ate lunch, I heard a massive rockfall avalanche on the Curtis Ridge wall. It took me a moment to spot it, but was super impressive. With so much to see and savor, I stayed up top as long as I could. And after an hour and a half I headed down.

It was much easier and faster moving on the descent not feeling the altitude as much. And, after passing Ruth, I had no problem locking into the trail as it trended NE a bit.

Once I got back to the 6800’ spot on the ridge, my alltrails app clearly showed an "Emmons Moraine trail" continuing NE along the ridge which I regrettably took. The ridge walk was super straightforward, although not much of a “trail”, and crossed a few rocky high points.

At about 6600’ along the ridge, the way descends and is pretty steep in spots. It’s loose, gravelly, and I saw no sign of a trail. I’ll spare the details, other than to say I would definitely not recommend hiking in this area. The app showed I was “on trail” but there was no trail in sight. Additionally it was pretty brushy and littered with deadfall. Normally I’m pretty thorough with prep before a hike. This time I winged it on a section I knew nothing about and paid the price, ha.

By the time I reached the “Trail Unmaintained Past This Point” sign, the trail was great! :)) Soon after I crossed the Inter Fork bridge and wrapped up the last 20min on the Glacier Basin Trail finishing at 6:25pm.

Aside from the phantom trail shenanigans, it was an awesome day! 13.4miles, 5,610'gain

A glorious hike from the Sunrise area! WTA stats are bang on, so here was our timing on a lovely August morning:

• 8:45am - departed the campground trailhead
• 10:55am - arrived at Glacier Basin Camp (this included 15 quick stops to document the meadows for the UW MeadoWatch program, so without those stop it would probably have been 10:30am)
• 11:20am - our turnaround point hiking past the maintained trail up "The Wedge"

On the way down, we did the detour to the Emmons Moraine Trail:

• 2hrs 15mins to come down from our end point in Glacier Basin back to the campground, including the side trail to Emmons Moraine.
• Only took us about 30 mins from the end of the Emmons Moraine Trail maintained trail back to the campground/trailhead (10 mins from the end of the maintained trail to the main trail, 20 mins on the main trail back to the campground).

I will definitely recommend this hike as a good early / late season one on Rainier!

This was a 3-day van camping/dayhiking trip. Stayed at Silver Springs Campground on Hwy 410 and had timed-entry permits for the park for all 3 days, Aug 6-8.

Glacier Basin: Wed, Aug 6. Rained. Few people on trail. Flowers were still out. No bear this year. 

Summerland/Panhandle Gap: Thurs, Aug 7

Parking: I checked how full the lot was each of the 3 days we were in the area. Wed at 9:30 - lots of parking - and it was raining. Thurs at 8:30 - still some spaces open, but still cloudy. Fri at 8:00 - almost full, and good weather forecast.

Flowers have peaked and are still beautiful. 2-3 snow slopes before the Gap. Spikes would have helped a bit as the snow was firm under the cloudy skies & cooler temps. Steep snow and sand/rock at the top. Clear skies on the way down.

Third Burroughs: Fri, Aug 8. Via Shadow Lake and the Glacier Overlook. Absolutely stunning. Possibly one of the best hikes in the park. Great views of the toe of the Emmons Glacier on hike to the 1st Burroughs and looking down the Winthrop Glacier from the 3rd.

We hiked from the White River Campground to the stunning turquoise lake at the base of Emmons Glacier; a short but rewarding 3-mile round trip. The trail is in great condition and offers beautiful scenery throughout, including a couple of lovely waterfalls that add to the serene atmosphere.

After crossing Inter Fork Creek and entering the Emmons Moraine section, there is a small section of the terrain that becomes a bit more challenging. The soil is loose in places, so extra caution is advised during the climb. But the effort is well worth it, the lake’s gorgeous color paired with Mt. Rainier towering in the background is a breathtaking sight.

We arrived at the Sunrise entrance just before 7 a.m. on a quiet Monday. The bathrooms were well-stocked and the parking lot had many available spaces before and after the hike. If you are just going from the campground parking lot to the Glacier Basin campsite, then the trail is straight forward with no issues. You get water features in little and medium streams. Classic PNW scenery with mossy rocks, great smells, grand trees, small foot bridges, and all sorts of running water. We took a left to the Emmons Moraine trail just to go over the bridge. I'm not a fan of the initial eroding switchbacks on that trail, so we hopped back on the Glacier Basin trail after soaking in the sights. There is a modest display of wildflowers that starts up halfway up. The trail itself is nice and comfortable. There is a lot of up and consequently down, but little variation in the up and down. A few sections withs steps. If you go past the campsites and past the end of maintained trail sign, then the trail is a different story with narrow eroded paths with high consequence if you slip. We went up just enough to find a good rock to sit on for lunch. We saw a healthy looking marmot (we saw it's butt as it ran away). And we saw tons of large ants. Lines and lines of them. Alltrails said 7.7 miles and 1,765 ft elevation gain. Last thing, snow. None. No wonder the water is running so fast. All the snow melted.