Played hooky this morning and walked out to the Fremont fire tower from Sunrise.  No line at the gate at 8:00, the main lot was maybe 20% full.  All the paving work has been completed along Sunrise Park Rd and it’s in great shape.  The visitor center is closed due to the covids but restrooms were open and in good condition.  We took Sourdough Ridge out to Frozen Lake/5 corners on the way up and the Wonderland Trail on the way back just to mix things up.  All trails are in excellent shape.  There was just a bit of smoke haze early on, but better than I had anticipated.

I love Fremont - it’s a wonderful walk but it never is difficult/punishing and it puts you a bit farther away from Rainier so it’s not quite so in your face like Burroughs.  It’s just out there by itself, much higher than anything else around so the views are amazing.  Didn’t see any mt goats today but there was a playful raven pair at the lookout and I got “EEeeeeep!”d at repeatedly by what appeared to be a whole family (four individuals altogether) of marmot sitting on a rock high above Wonderland just east of 5 corners.  Quick shout out to “SteveR” - I waved at you in Grand Park from the fire tower, did you see me?  

https://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/sunrise.htm

Left the sunrise parking lot at 5:30 arriving at Dege Peak right about 6:00. Lots of smoke today , could only see the very top of Mt Rainier. The sun had an eerie red glow through the smoke, like it was coming around for another scorching.Had the Peak to myself which was cool.hung out for a while and then made my way across Sourdough Ridge towards Frozen Lake and then up to the Burroughs. The smoke was still holding on strong. Could barely see Little Tahoma . Still is always amazing to be that close to the mountain. Lots of snow missing on Rainier this year with all the heat this summer, hoping to have a better look but the smoke was disappointing.still had a great hike and a great time . Arrived back at the parking lot about 11:30 . Logged about 12 miles on my fit bit .Will be back when the smoke clears.

Not much blooming on Sourdough Ridge except some asters and a lot of pasqueflower seedheads. Barely any blooms in the vast meadows leading up to Berkeley Park either, it's mostly dessicated. There's still some yarrow, buckwheat, pussypaws, shrubby cinquefoil, rainiera, smooth mountain dandelion, Cusick's speedwell, and dwarf lupine here and there. There are a couple of sloped lush meadows full of scarlet paintbrush and aster about 0.3 mi before Frozen Lake.

Berkeley Park itself is a week past prime, but it still had dense fields of magenta Indian paintbrush, Gray's lovage, American bistort, pasqueflower seedheads, Sitka Valerian, arrowleaf senecio, elephant head, Lewis' monkeyflower, yellow monkeyflower, mountain bog gentian, green false hellebore, and some fading lupine. It gets lusher the farther down you go.

Lots of aster on Silver Forest trail. Highly recommend!

Repeat after me: where there are wildflowers, there are bugs. Inconvenient, but ya can't have rainbows without rain.

On a sunny, clear Monday morning, I arrived at Sunrise to an almost full parking lot at 8:30. Headed up to the Sourdough Ridge trail toward Frozen Lake in lots of company for a weekday. Fabulous views of Rainier all along this loop, and enough clarity to see Mt Baker, Glacier Peak, Mt Index, Mt Stewart and Old Snowy. Wildflowers are generally past their peak, but there are some damper meadows on the east slopes still in full flower.  One solitary mountain goat and one group of four were browsing down in the valley to the west. Heard a pika. Trails were not as dusty as past few weeks, due to rain two days before.  Streams of hikers were ascending and descending the trails to the first and second Burroughs alpine tundra. Dwarf lupine was still blooming. I chatted with a man who had worked at MRNP and sumitted via most every route including Liberty Ridge, Finger Fuhrer, Sunset Ridge. Still hiking it in his upper 70's or low 80's.  Later on I met another who's been visiting Rainier for 55 years, with a good number of Kautz Glacier summits. Upon returning to first Burroughs, I took the Sunrise Rim trail to make a loop back. It's a long descent, fully exposed to weather, pretty warm this sunny day. The forest near Shadow Lake offers relief, as does the outhouse. Stay right for the most scenic route back to Sunrise, passing the east side of Shadow Lake and the lushest, most color-filled meadows. Then then up through fields of asters, a stop at the overlook, and up the shady forested trail. About 5.2 miles total.

Forecast called for partly cloudy skies so I took the chance on Sunrise. Arrived around 10.15 am on a Sunday and the parking lot was about half full. Lot was packed when I got back around 3 with more cars streaming in.

 It was cold in the morning - windy with gusts up to 20mph according to the forecast and temps in the low 40’s. Please be sure to check the forecast and bring the appropriate gear - there were some folks in more summery clothes who were shivering/talking about how they didn’t expect the cold. One of those days where I was glad to have a light puffy and a shell.

4.5 hours round trip for third Burroughs via sourdough ridge and sunrise rim trail coming back, at a moderate pace and including a 30min lunch break. Forgot to set Gaia for about half a mile so it inaccurately clocked 8.35 miles and 1800ft total ascent. Great day out!