We reached the trailhead at 8:15am on Saturday, sun started peaking through the clouds as we got to Sunrise. No wait at the park entrance, and we saw a bull elk with a few cows about 1.5 miles from the entrance. They moved away from the road up the hill as we drove by, but settled back down up there. Summerland only had 4-5 cars parked and there were probably only 6 other cars at the White River campground. All the bathrooms we tried were locked, but it seems like the vault toilets at loop B were open from talking with others.
We only passed a few people on the hike, both before the turn off to Emmons Moraine trail, but there was a good amount of sun, and nice fall colors all around. We reached the end of the maintained trailhead and went another quarter mile up to sit on a rock for a break. On our way back down we passed 25+ groups, and the parking lot was full with a few cars on the side of the road.
We also took a quick side track over to the Emmons Moraine trail where a number of people were getting better views of the mountain than the top of Glacier basin based on the light and clouds.
Overall, good views of the mountain and good weather - especially compared to the west side of the Cascades later in the day.
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