Three Burroughs

 I decided to take a chance on a partly cloudy day and hike out to the Three Burroughs Mountains from the Sunrise area of Mt Rainier National Park. The route I took was about 8 miles with 2,700 ft of overall gain.
I started on the Shadow Lakes Trail heading up towards First Burroughs. There were a few wildflowers still in bloom.

 About 1.3 miles from the parking lot is Shadow Lake. The water level was low enough to easily walk around on the lake shore without trampling on wildflowers.

Nice reflection in the water, the trail up towards Sunrise Camp can be seen across the lake. 

 Mt Rainier is hidden in the clouds.

 View from the other side of Shadow lake.

 From Shadow Lake, I took the Burroughs Loop Trail heading up the south side of First Burroughs. Nice views looking down into Glacier Basin. Lovely view of the turquoise lake below and the bottom of Emmons Glacier. Mt Rainier remained hidden in the clouds.

 On a clear day, the views of Mt Rainier are stunning and can be seen for most of the length of this 1.3 mile section of the trail.

 Looking towards the east, the White River in Glacier Basin. Happy that these are clouds and not smoke from all the wildfires that we've been seeing lately.

 Closer look at the turquoise tarn

 From the trail junction on First Burroughs, I continued on to Second Burroughs another 0.6 mile. Mt Rainier was completely covered in clouds and it was very windy on Second Burroughs, so I continued towards Third Burroughs









It's about 1 mile from Second to Third Burroughs. For a brief moment, Mt Rainier broke through the clouds with the sun lighting up the glacier fields. Stunning!

 The clouds quickly hid the mountain, here only Little Tahoma remains in view, and soon, that too was covered in clouds.

 I saw a single mountain goat up on the side of Third Burroughs. (zoom)













That small white dot, is another sighting of the same goat as I continued up the trail.

 The goat made better time up Third Burroughs than I did. Soon, he also, was hidden in the clouds.

 No view of Mt Rainier this morning from Third Burroughs.

 I'd hoped to be able to look down on Winthrop Glacier and over towards Mystic Lake, but the cloud cover was thick here. I tried to wait for a while, but the wind was freezing cold.

 Heading back towards Second Burroughs, wondering if I'd have a view of Rainier when I returned up there.












The clouds moved to allow me to see Skyscrapper Peak and Mount Fremont to the north for bit.











As I continued up Second Burroughs, I looked back and had this amazing view of Mt Rainier.

As the clouds moved around the mountain, they seemed to stay atop Third Burroughs.

 Much better view of Mt Rainier from Second Burroughs on my return. It was fun to watch the clouds move in and out.

 Heading back to First Burroughs from Second Burroughs.

 I saw a small marmot on the side of the trail.

 And looking back at the marmot, I got another great view of Mt Rainier and the clouds.

 I needed to keep stopping and look back towards the view until the clouds came back and completely covered the mountain.

 It was amazing how quickly the clouds would move in.

 Back on First Burroughs, I decided to take the Burroughs Trail down to Frozen Lake. Sometimes, I only saw a short distance in front of me.

 Clouds parted to reveal Frozen Lake below.












From Frozen Lake, I choose to return to Sunrise by the Sourdough Ridge Trail. I could see down towards Shadow Lake, but Mt Rainier remained in the clouds.

 some more wildflowers along the trail

 chipmunk eating a cone













The views to the north were cloudy. No long distant views this morning.

 Antler Peak and the Sourdough Mountains.

 On the trail down from Sourdough Ridge to Sunrise, I got a nice view of Mt Rainier!

some of the other wildflowers seen along the trail today: