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Sunrise, Mount Rainier

July 8, 2007. Second day of a two day trip to Rainier. My intent was to arrive early enough to catch the sunrise, but not having had an alpine start for nearly a year, it was hard to get out of bed. :P Nonetheless, I was able to make it up to Sunrise Point in time for one awesome sunrise. There was a low layer of clouds below the peaks as well, which made the view, which already includes Adams, Little Tahoma, and Rainer, even more impressive. Of course, I didn't take any pictures and instead tried my luck to make it to the parking lot in time. Just a few minutes later, the sun was already glaring and the view from anywhere near the lot isn't that great anyway. Oh well. It turned out that hiking in early was a good idea anyway since a marine layer started moving in by 9 AM. After visiting Burroughs Mountain (one, two, and three, though the third was socked in), Mt. Fremont, and the Sourdough Ridge trail, I left by noon, just as tourists started arriving in force. (9+ miles round trip, 1800+ ft. gain)

Burroughs Mountain Trail

Emmons Outlook: Early morning with Little Tahoma and The Emmons Glacier. (1) North face of Rainier. (2) Little Tahoma. (3) The climbing route up to the Emmons Glacier is actually visible.

Panoramas: Some panoramas from along the barren trail. Here's one to the North with Skyscraper Mountian, Grand Park, Mount Fremont, and the cascades. (1) The tundra-like trail. (2) 360 showing a storm front moving in. (3) Me at Burroughs Two.

Socked In: By the time I got close to Burroughs Three, it was socked in. The summit is just behind that cloud on the right which I was content just tagging. (1) I waited at this spot a little below Burroughs Three looking down toward the Carbon River for almost an hour to see if the clouds would depart. You can see that Burroughs Two (left) was also socked in by now. But alas, no such luck, so I headed back.

Touch a Cloud: I suppose it shouldn't have been surprising that I could reach up an touch some puffy clouds since I was just in one, but it was still pretty cool. (1) Flowers and Little Tahoma. (2) Flowers, Little Tahoma, and Rainier. (3) Phlox and Rainier.

Mount Fremont Trail

Lonely Outlook: As you can see, it turned out to be another typical Northwest type of day, making the outlook appear pretty sad. (1) But here's some pretty Indian Paintbrush along the way. (2) And some more flowers! (3) And even more. (Happy yet? :)

Missing Top: Apparently, the newly repaired roof already flew away. (1) 360 panorama. (2) Zoom in of Grand Park with some pretty lighting.

Sourdough Ridge Trail

Little Bump: An unnamed bump in the Huckleberry Basin to the north. Not much more to see on this trail, just another way back to the lot from Frozen Lake.

Last modified: Sat Jul 26 16:54:37 CDT 2008