First Burroughs and Skyscraper Mountain

We headed up to the Sunrise area of Mt Rainier National Park to hike out to Skyscraper Mountain (an 8 mile round trip hike with 1,300 gain). After talking to a ranger about the snow conditions on the trails, we decided to start our hike on the Sunrise Rim Trail up to First Burroughs, then down the north side of First Burroughs to Frozen Lake, then along the Wonderland Trail to Skyscraper Mountain and return via the Wonderland Trail and the Sourdough Ridge Trail. This made for a gorgeous 10 mile hike with 2,300 ft of elevation gain. The views of Mt Rainier start almost immediately from the Sunrise Rim Trail!

We walked around Shadow Lake (about 1.3 miles up the Sunrise Rim Trail) and captured this reflection of the moon over Mt Rainier:

Back on the Sunrise Rim Trail, we surprised a marmot, who quickly scampered off into the woods.

After Shadow Lake and the overlook, the Sunrise Rim Trail becomes the Burroughs Trail, the views are spectacular. I love the color in the lake below.

 There was one snow field to cross on the south side of First Burroughs, the trail had been carved by a work crew. The snow was soft enough in the morning that we did to need to use our microspikes, but were glad we had hiking poles.







About 3 miles from the trailhead, we reached the junction of the First and Second Burroughs Trails.
Wide angle view to the south of First Burroughs, Second Burroughs to the right:

Pano to the north of First Burroughs: Below is the Wonderland Trail and Berkeley Park. Skyscraper Mountain is to the left of center and on the right of center is Mount Fremont.

 There was a lot more snow on a very exposed north side of First Burroughs. The top and bottoms sections had soft snow, but we found the trail icy in the middle this morning and were glad we had our microspikes and poles.

 From Frozen Lake, we headed west on the Wonderland Trail for about 2.1 miles. There were several soft snow fields over flat portions of the trail.

 Here the Wonderland Trail meanders down and up going through many fields of wildflowers (Skyscraper Mountain on the left),

 there were sneak peaks of Mt Rainier,

 a variety of alpine flowers,

 more snow fields,

 and glimpses of Glacier Peak far to the north.

There was one large snow field with exposure just before the turnoff to Skyscraper Mountain.

We were glad the snow was soft, as it was a long ways down.

Down below was a small herd of mountain goats.

A well defined boot track leads up the spine of Skyscraper Mountain, a gain of 300 ft in 0.4 of a mile.

 Great views as we headed up the switchbacks.














Pano to the south from atop Skyscraper Mountain:

To the north Grand Park is on a plateau. To the far north we could see the Olympic Mountains, Mt Baker, Glacier Peak and Mt Stuart among other snow capped Cascade peaks.

We returned via the same section of the Wonderland Trail, here we had a good view of Little Tahoma,

 and we again enjoyed walking through the meadows filled with wildflowers.












Pano at Frozen Lake: First Burroughs, Mt Rainier, and Mount Fremont.

 From Frozen Lake we took the Sourdough Ridge Trail part way to the parking area at Sunrise (1.5 miles).
More fields of wildflowers and marvelous views, here First Burroughs and Mt Rainier.

Wide angle view further along the Sourdough Ridge Trail

 There are several places along the Sourdough Ridge Trail where there are views to the north of McNeeley Peak, Huckleberry Basin, and the distant Cascade Peaks.









Some of the many wildflowers we saw in bloom along the trails today: