Beautiful day at Sunrise, in the company of more people than it seems possible to park in the lot. Metered flow at the entry gate, down to one car every five minutes for awhile today. Luckily, we were already camped at White River CG. The trail conditions are snow free and dusty now. It's a pack train of hikers out the Sourdough Ridge trail to Frozen Lake. At the lake, hikers disperse a bit, with many going out to Fremont Lookout, a few less up to the Burroughs, and just a sprinkling down to Berkeley Park or over to the Wonderland Trail.
Wildflowers are full on beautiful, getting more and more colorful and lush the lower you go into the well-watered meadows of Berkeley Park. The meadows have the full array of alpine wildflowers blooming. My turnaround point was the BP campsites, where a field of avalanche lilies was blooming in the shade of trees.
Saw lots of animals today. A bear sow and cub below Sourdough Ridge between Shadow Lake and the Sunrise Rim trail. While watching for the bears to re-appear, a doe elk and then in turn a buck elk appeared. First time I've seen more than elk tracks at Sunrise. Dozens of marmots. A herd of >30 mountain goats off down the valley visible from the Fremont lookout trail a short distance from Frozen Lake. Bugs, too, but not bad today. Met a nice hiker named Ted, 80 y.o., who visits once a year from Chicago, in his 40th year at Mt. R. He was going slowly, but still going!
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