Burroughs Mountain — Friday, Aug. 3, 2012

Mount Rainier Area > NE - Sunrise/White River

WTA Hike-a-Thon Hike#1 for Aidan (age 6) and me. Our family camped at White River and headed up to Sunrise on Friday morning. It was warm and sunny, and I suspect that the lupine fields will be in full bloom in 7-10 days. The flowers were pretty but not as showy as I have seen them in the past. Our original destination was the Mount Fremont Lookout, but the heat and mosquitoes had some members of the party - most notably Aidan's 3-year old sister - dragging. The kids made it up to Frozen Lake. Frozen Lake won kid points by having an iceberg floating in it and marmots cavorting around it. I was a little put off by the fence all around. Apparently, this is a municipal water supply, as several signs pointedly say. With the kids done for the day, my sister in-law took them back to the car, allowing my husband and me to continue on a bit further. We found the route to Burroughs Mountain more tantalizing than Mount Fremont, as it takes hikers directly towards the mountain and not away from it. The ascent to the First Burroughs is only about 0.7 of a mile from the junction. It crossed three small snow patches, melting fast. The sun and volume of hikers had made the crossing fairly easy without poles or traction devices. Still, we had to be careful. Wouldn't want to slip here! These could be gone by next weekend. The view from the top of First Burroughs was an amazing 360. You can see the lookout, the Wonderland Trail and the Mountain with a dead-on view of the Little Tahoma and the glaciers. Itty bitty lupine and paintbrush brighten the flat top here. We were so tempted to climb to the Second Burrough or to do the loop back through Sunrise Camp, but the family was waiting for us back down the trail. I highly recommend this trip for right now. You leave many of the other hikers behind at the Frozen Lake crossroads, and the loop is an added bonus. Plus, the pay-off is fabulous.