Hiking the last weekend before the new car reservation system at Sunrise Corridor was delightful today starting at the White River Campground. 

CAR RESERVATION: First, reserve a car reservation at recreation.gov you need to have this before showing up at the gate. July 4-Sept.

ENTRY FEE: Second, along with the car reservation use your National Park entrance pass either America the Beautiful or Interagency Pass, Military or pay for a day pass at the gate.

PARKING: Fast entry, clean restroom at White River CG, parking overall wonderful prior to 8:30 am. Parking was cramped and completely full at returning to trailhead in the afternoon.

TRIP: After parking continue to the back of the campground where it opens to the Glacier Basin trail. The trail is a well-maintained, slow warm-up, that gradually becomes steeper through the forest.

We took the Morraine Trail first to view the Emmons Glacier viewpoint. There is no need to continue past the un-maintained trail sign here. This is small spur trail that leads across the Inter Glacier Creek and up to several viewpoints.

Continuing uphill towards Glacier Basin BC Camp at 3 miles the trail then opens to snow mounds that are not difficult to navigate at this time. Leave the micro spikes home but boots and trekking poles are still helpful. 

Glacier Basin had 2-3 camps without snow, one the group camp. We had lunch and explored beyond camp to the right through the snow and towards a small pond.

HAZARDS: Snow piles had some significant melt outs underneath with post holes posing a hazard if you weren't paying attention. Two small sections of boot path through the snow led you in the wrong direction. 

OVERALL EXPERIENCE: A beautiful hike. Next time, I'll add the smaller section beyond Glacier Basin CG, maybe bring some gear to get across Inter Glacier to get a closer look.

PHOTO SPOT: At Glacier Basin you can continue a short bit but the major photo spot is beyond the backcountry camp and the reflection at the pond. Quite amazing to take photos.

8.5 miles, 1800' elevation gain ending at 5900'.

All blue skies on the Glacier Basin and Emmons Moraine trail today. We arrived at the campgrounds at 7:30 a.m. All Trails put our total hiking distance at 9.58 miles with 2,244 ft elevation gain. We went past the meadows until the incline got a little crazy with loose rock and steepness. If you just want to see some cool sights, then hit the Emmons Moraine trail and then the Glacier Basin trail until the snow. The large sections of snow are easy to get up. There are kicked in steps or nice gritty dirty snow that is helpful for traction, but coming down is work. It's slippery as heck. Views go on for days before the snow, so you are not missing out. Early spring flowers are blooming with yellow avalanche lillies and violas and I think heather? It's so dang pretty. With all that pretty comes the bugs. We didn't need bug spray, but that time is coming real soon. I do not recommend the Emmons Moraine trail if you have squirrely kids. There are narrow, rocky sections of the trail that require moving with care. We saw a marmot dining in a sea of avalanche lillies and a bunch of darting chipmunks that weren't scared of humans at all. It was my first time on the trail and I'll be back for sure. I loved it so much. The snow made it more challenging, but even without the snow, I'd consider this a real hike that requires shoes with good traction, water, sunscreen, snacks, layers, bug spray, hiking poles if you have knee/balance issues or just love your poles. On our way back we yielded to a lot of people who could have been walking around Seattle taking in the sights and not on a challenging hike. Also, at the lot, it looked like the rangers were preparing to ticket cars parked where the signs told them not to. Cars were parked EVERYWHERE. Yikes. 

Glacier Basin is snow free until after the junction with the Emmons Morraine trail after that the snow is well packed down by boots and easy to follow the path but there are a couple small drop offs to the wooden bridges. Glacier Basin itself is mostly snow covered with some patches of avalanche lilies and early pasque flowers (white anemones). The crossing to the Inter Glacier did require some boulder hopping along the stream but once across it was straight forward slushy mess to Schurman. We summited yesterday about 930 AM. The route goes across the Emmons all the way to the saddle then up bypassing the bergschrund. The last crevasse crossing was pretty tenuous and getting worse in the heat so the route may have to drop down before ascending. Snow conditions on the route and objective hazards were mild. Most parties are starting quite late in the morning or afternoon and nearly all summited. It was quite cold and windy up top so we didn’t linger long great views at the top looks like Grand Park is mostly melted out and it looks quite verdant. Beautiful trillium, lupine, and avalanche lilies along the lower forest hike which would be a great hike by itself which I plan to do to Emmons Morraine with the kids. Go climb that mountain!

I had at least four good trail choices in my mind last night, but I selected this one within MRNP.  If you decide to get into the White River CG area, for toilets you can use either the ones just beyond the pay station, or use the ones in Loop B in the CG itself.  Be aware that rangers are taking down some hazard trees in the loops, which can cause a short delay.

Timed entry starts soon in this area, check MRNP’s web site for details.

The Glacier Basin and Emmons Moraine trails are in excellent condition and lots of people who care keep the trash to almost non-existent.

Snow from the winter is still around after the second pair of switchbacks.  Past that in places it varies up to 6’ deep in the middle of the trail, but under a foot at the edges.

I turned around at a particular wood bridge mostly covered with deep snow, about a quarter mile short of Glacier Basin.  The proportions of the snow’s H vs V looked sketchy and looked like it could easily fall over into the creek a few feet below.  People were still using it but, I want to hike another day.

Over half of the hikers I passed were carrying skis.  Many spoke of coming down from Steamboat Prow, others couldn’t handle the slush.  Live and learn.  Stop in and speak to the most excellent ranger staff at the WIC for latest higher snow conditions!

The sign at the bottom of the Sunrise Road showed that hiking and biking the 10 mile road up to Sunrise itself is open to those recreational activities at this time.  I forgot to ask how far the plow has gotten.  It’s a scream of a ride and I’ve done it a few times.