Headed up to the Fremont Lookout via Sourdough Ridge. The trail is in great condition. Beautiful views of Mount Rainier this morning and the trail was not very busy. The bugs were not bad as there was a slight breeze. The flowers are just starting and should be blooming nicely in a week or two. Heading back down, we opted to take the Wonderland and hike past Shadow Lake. The Wonderland has two snow patches between Frozen Lake and the Sunrise Camp. I wore trail runners and was fine but you may slip a little bit in this section. Only wildlife we saw were marmots who were hanging out on the trail. A herd of elk ran across the road just outside of Greenwater so be careful driving. Another beautiful day on the mountain! 

A snow, flower, and mosquito report: The 2 snow crossings on Sourdough Ridge will be gone in a few days and are easy to cross. The 3 snow fields from Frozen Lake down to the Berkeley Park junction are all very easy to cross. There is no snow on the Berkeley Park trail. Between Berkeley Camp and Grand Park, there are about 10 patches of snow across the trail that are all easy to cross. Taking the Wonderland east from Frozen Lake, there are 2 snow fields that are a little steep, this was the only snow on the route that slowed down our group of 7 Mountaineers (a few people got out their poles for these).  We really enjoyed the flowers, especially in Berkeley Park (photo 1, cruising through the avalanche lilies in lower Berkeley Park).

The alpine areas on Sourdough Ridge, around Frozen Lake, and down towards Berkeley Park have many flowers. The Drummond's anemones, an early flower, are fading and mostly going to seed. There are lots of others in bloom: dwarf mountain lupine, pink and white mountain heather, veronica, magenta paintbrush, alpine buckwheat, alpine golden daisies, alpine asters, smelowskia, and more.

The dwarf mountain lupine and cliff paintbrush are blooming at the top of Berkeley Park with more to come. The lupine, heather, and magenta paintbrush are blooming at the beginning of the descent into the park (picture 2 and 0:58-1:22 on the video). There are many western anemones, glacier lilies, and avalanche lilies blooming through the rest of the park, though many of these are fading. There are patches of lupine and magenta paintbrush as you descend.  The early wet area flowers, white marsh marigolds, Jeffrey's shooting stars, and bog/alpine laurel, are still around, but many are fading (picture 3). Sitka valerian is just starting to bloom, with lots to come. We saw one clump of the bright yellow Rainier lousewort. The heathers (white and pink) are in bloom in many areas, with more to come.

Heading to Grand Park we saw tiger lilies, beargrass, and some faded-to-white Oregon anemones. The western portion of Grand Park had lots of yellow, fan-leaf cinquefoil and Strickland's tauschia (thanks Keleigh for the ID), purple violets and veronica, patches of lupine in low/wet spots, and others.

Everywhere except on Sourdough Ridge and Frozen Lake, the mosquitos were numerous and aggressive.

The attached link has a YouTube playlist of individual flower videos for some of the flowers that we saw. These start with the location and environment where the flower was filmed, followed by 1 or 2 of the common names and the scientific name, and then followed by its family name, common and scientific.  For myself, I am using these as a learning tool. I am also distributing these to the participants on the Mountaineers hikes that I lead. I am an intermediate when it comes to flower identification, so I could easily be wrong on some of these.

A partial flower list: western anemone, Cusick's veronica, magenta paintbrush, low Jacob's ladder, sitka valerian, lupine, little-flower penstemon, American bistort, dwarf mountain lupine, glacier lily, avalanche lily, western springbeauties, spreading phlox, alpine aster, woolly everlasting, pink mountain heather, showy sedge, glacier fleabane, bog/alpine laurel, Jeffery's shooting stars, white marsh marigolds, fan-leaf cinquefoil, magenta/mountain paintbrush, cliff paintbrush, Tolmie's saxifrage, white mountain heather, Drummonds anemone, alpine buckwheat, tufted saxifrage, smelowskia, alpine golden daisy, partridge foot, Davidson's penstemon, tiger lilies, beargrass, Oregon anemone, yellow and purple violets, a light-purple rockcress, bluebells, and many others.

We set out from the Sunrise view point parking lot at 0600 heading west towards Dege Peak. The trail was great and the weather was perfect. This little jaunt is one of our favorites because not many people seem to use it. (Shhhh, don't tell anyone) We crossed paths with maybe 4/5 other hikers all morning. The wildflowers are really getting going just now and the views here are good in every direction. We passed the turn to Dege Peak and continued to the bench at the Sunrise/Sunrise visitor center junction. A marmot tore off right past us while we sat there! Man, they sure can move. There are still a few mounds of compacted snow but they were easy to cross. Noticed quite a bit of boot traffic in the grass avoiding the snow...please stay to the trail! On our way back we went up to Dege and drank in the views. So worth it. 

A snow and flower report: As reported by others (thanks!) the snow crossings on Sourdough Ridge and from Frozen Lake down to the Berkeley Park junction are all very easy to cross. There is no snow on the Berkeley Park trail. When you enter the woods at Berkeley Camp, there are places where there is snow across the trail (these usually continue for about 1 mile as you go towards Grand Park and they have never been difficult). Snow conditions are about 10-14 days ahead of last year. 

Sourdough Ridge, Frozen Lake, and the alpine areas of the Wonderland heading towards Berkeley all have good flowers right now with more coming. Perennial plants are mostly driven by soil temperature, I think that these areas that were not snow-covered during the heat blast are going to advance quickly (for instance I only saw 1 Drummond's anemone left at Frozen Lake).

The dwarf mountain lupine and cliff paintbrush (picture 4) are blooming at the top of Berkeley Park with more to come. The lupine, heather, and magenta paintbrush are just starting to bloom as you descend (they look less numerous than last year, but it's too early to tell for sure and last year was so good, it's an unfair comparison). As the trail approaches Lodi Creek, there are fields of western anemones and glacier lilies (picture 1). Further down the trail, the avalanche lilies are hugely abundant. There is some early magenta paintbrush and lupine mixed in. In the wet areas, there are marsh marigolds, Jeffery's shooting stars, and towards Berkeley Camp the pretty, pink bog/alpine laurel. 

In Berkeley Park, the snow melt is 10 days or so ahead of last year, the long range forecasts are for well above average temperatures. It doesn't look like many areas in Berkeley Park got overly baked by the super-hot weather, many areas just melted out, some areas some still have snow, and Berkeley Park is irrigated by many spring fed creeks. The flowers have been good every year in the ten years I've been visiting  Berkeley Park. I think that they will be good this year, but the flowers will progress quickly and some of them will come and go quickly. 

A partial flower list: western anemone, Cusick's veronica, magenta paintbrush, low Jacob's ladder, sitka valerian, lupine, little-flower penstemon, American bistort, dwarf mountain lupine, glacier lily, avalanche lily, western springbeauties, spreading phlox, alpine aster, Antennaria lanata, woolly everlasting, pink mountain Heather, showy sedge, glacier fleabane, bog/alpine laurel, Jeffery's shooting stars, marsh marigolds, fan-leaf cinquefoil, magenta/mountain paintbrush, cliff paintbrush, Tolmie's saxifrage, white mountain heather, Drummonds anemone, alpine buckwheat, tufted saxifrage, smelowskia, alpine golden daisy, partridge foot, Davidson's penstemon, and many others.

Parking lot had fewer that thirty cars in it at 7AM on a cloudy Monday morning.  Began on the ridge to Frozen Lake as the clouds began to clear, with a view down to Shadow Lake and Silver Forest. Wildflowers still in bloom despite the 42˚F morning temps. Trail in great condition. 

Down in the basin, Shadow Lake was 55.9˚F. By 9AM traffic on the trail was increasing. 

Trip total 4 miles with 1,124 feet of up and down.