We caught a stunning day out of Sunrise to hike with an out-of-town friend. Warm, with clear views all along the trail up to Dege Peak. We ate lunch with a map in hand, tracing glaciers and peak-spotting. Fantastic views of St. Helens, Mount Baker, Glacier Peak and Mount Stuart (not to mention all the other mountains in-between.) Not a lot of fall color, but as the light grew longer, the grasses lit up the meadows around the lodge in a golden glow. Things were fairly quiet on the wildlife front: a few birds and a couple of elk spotted on the drive back down. It is post-season at Mount Rainier, so facilities are pretty much battened down. Don't expect potable water, interpretive rangers or any of the facilities to be open. The restrooms were open, though, which was a nice surprise. The park says it estimates closing the Sunrise Road the end of October, so there's only a few more days left to get a look at the views (provided the weather doesn't dump a bunch of snow up there). http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/road-status.htm

Do you want a short easy hike with a great view of Mount Rainier (and Adams and Baker, etc...)? This is your hike! What an awesome one! My hiking buddy and I started at around 8:30AM, and we were the first on the trail. It was an absolutely beautiful and warm day (in the mid-60s) and we lucked out! Saw lots of animal tracks on the trail but no wildlife. We didn't even see a bird! The top has amazing views! Wow, what a difference doing a hike mid-week. Great morning hike!!!!!!!

Quick hike up for sunset, great views all around. There was some smoke around, but nothing like a couple of days ago. I could barely make out Mt. Baker and Glacier Peak. Mt Adams was also visible which was surprising considering the fire there, you could see the smoke billowing up like an eruption before some wind came through and dispersed it.

We started the hike with a clear blue sky, but on our way to Dege Peak the clouds blew in and completely obscured our view of Rainier, what a bunmer! Some of the other trip reports complained about the road noises, but it was quiet for us on the weekday. The trail offered an awesome view of the surrounding ridgeline, and of Rainier before the clouds. Also, the only time the bugs were an annoyance was on the peak itself. No bugs for the entire trail, but as soon as we got to the top it was just a swarm of flies! We had to eat our lunch just below the peak because they were too much of an annoyance. It certainly wasn't enough to ruin the hike, though! Oh, and we saw about a dozen chipmunks and marmots on the trail, too! I've attached my MapMyHike file, but I forgot to turn it off until we were driving away so it's inaccurate at the end.