Summary: Breathtaking vistas mid-week are the best. This was my first visit to Rainier NP and I'm excited for my next!
Parking: There's a lot of construction mid-week, so getting to Sunrise was a bit torturous, and half the parking lot was closed. There were few enough cars that wasn't a problem, even at 10 am on one of the last sunny days this season.
Trail: I went via Frozen Lake on the way out from Sunrise and via Shadow Lake on the way back. The trail was in excellent condition throughout, occasionally rocky but mostly sandy. I was lucky the wind wasn't gusting too hard, and I can imagine how you'd end up with a lot of grit in your mouth if it were. The tundra environment results in virtually no cover once beyond the 1st Burroughs Mountain, so be prepared for the exposure. The trail rolls up and down the mountains, so it hikes easier than the numbers suggest, as the gain is interspersed with long breaks.
Payoff: The 3rd Burroughs Mountain gets you up and close personal with Winthrop Glacier, and takes you high enough that you get 360° views. I got an excellent view of the clouds chasing down from the north. The south side of the Burroughs Mountain Loop, on the other hand, provides excellent views of the Emmons Glacier. The open tundra and high elevation means unobstructed, sweeping views of just about everything (you can see so much of the park it's like reading a map).
The human element: Trail etiquette was mixed, with about half the folks yielding properly and others not so much. What I found really distressing was the way people just did not stay on trail. The most egregious example was a family who went well off trail to rest, and two members of their party just kept wandering around off trail and poking at rocks and plants on the ground. They weren't the only ones, but they were the worst.
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