After breezing through the entrance gate (it was a Tuesday), we started the hike around 12:30 PM from the Sunrise parking lot. We took the Sunrise Rim Trail up to the First Burroughs and found it pretty foggy but there was a sliver of landscape below the clouds that we could see. Heading up to the Second Burroughs, we saw the beautiful valley below Rainier, the bottom half of the Emmons Moraine Glacier, and the White River. There were some large rocks to have lunch on and a very friendly chipmunk zooming around who walked right up to our boots begging for crumbs. The fog continued to roll in and it got so cold I was wishing I brought gloves as my hands were freezing. We luckily had windbreakers and fleeces to put on as the forecast said 56-60 degrees and partly cloudy. We got some respite as we descended a bit into a small valley on our way to the Third Burroughs. There is a fork in the trail, take the right trail - the one that you can see goes directly up the mountain. We accidentally took the left trail due to unclear signage and had to back track.
The fog quickly got very heavy as we ascended up the Third Burroughs and due to it, there was very little visibility beyond maybe 2 meters in front of us. During a brief fog clearing moment, we spotted a massive marmot staring us down from a ridge line, but otherwise no wildlife and no goats. The Third Burroughs trail felt a bit like the moon. There is still some snow patches up at the top but nowhere near the trail. We couldn't see any views off of Third Burroughs as the thick fog stayed (seemingly all day). We saw only 2 other hikers on this part of the trail.
If you have your heart set on the views, I'd steer clear of this hike on an overcast day or a day after some rain blows in.
After we hiked back to the First Burroughs, we took the North Burroughs Mountain Trail (not the way we came), and continued onto the Sourdough Ridge Trail to the parking lot.
Right before the lot, we found an unopened soda can hidden beneath a tree, completely empty, with teeth marks on it. I guess an animal found it and bit into it and the liquid leaked out a small puncture hole. We packed that out and hit the very nice and large bathroom before heading out for the day.
Our GPS did come in handy during the fog in order to stay on trail as there were a few dead end trails sprouting from the main trail at the top of Third Burroughs. Our GPS logged 10.5 miles and 3,180 ft ascent gain over the course of the trail. I would call this trail moderate/hard, but definitely leaning hard during the Third Burroughs and trip back to Second Burroughs stretch. We also got fairly sunburned even though we were almost entirely in fog - a good reminder to reapply and to wear good sunglasses!!
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