Northern Loop Day 1: Sunrise to Mystic Lake

The Northern Loop trail is in Mt Rainier National Park. With the side trail to the Natural Bridge from Windy Gap, we hiked 37 miles with 9,800ft of loss and gain over 4 days. Half of the trail is along a portion of the Wonderland Trail. We started our backpack trip from Sunrise, hiking clockwise on the loop to Mystic Lake the first day: 9+miles with -2,700'/+1,900'. We started a little before 8 AM heading up to the Sourdough Ridge Trail and only saw 4 day hikers. Beautiful view of Mt Rainier from the Sourdough Ridge Trail.

Here we joined the Wonderland Tail at Frozen Lake, 1.5 miles from the parking area at Sunrise.

From the trail above Berkley Park, looking towards Mount Fremont.

Lots of lupine, parsley and bistro along this section of trail, Skyscraper Mountain to the far right.

Beautiful field of wildflowers on our way to the saddle at Skyscrapper Mountain.

There was a small patch of snow on an exposed slope east of the saddle by Skyscraper Mountain, we were able to cross on the rocks above the snow.

marmot on the saddle below Skyscraper Mountain

Gorgeous view of Mt Rainier on the trail leading down from the saddle at Sky Scrapper Mountain.

From here down to Granite Creek, we would see lots of wildflowers in bloom. Harebells and cinquefoil

Lots of lupine along with our last view of Mt Rainier before descending into the forest.

Through this forested section we would also see fleabane and paintbrush in bloom.

lots of arnica

Granite Creek, beautiful shady spot to resupply our water.

The trail descends along the lower portion of the Winthrop Glacier, here it is covered in dirt and rocks. We saw and listened to rock falling of the glacier as we hiked past.

Old Desolate behind the Winthrop Glacier, some areas of ice exposed below the dirt and rocks on the glacier.

bridge over Winthrop Creek below the glacier

In the rocky section in the middle of the Winthrop Creek drainage area, we had a nice view of Mt Rainier behind Winthrop Glacier.

Old Desolate

Crossing of the West Fork of the White River in the Winthrop Creek drainage area

On the way up to Mystic Camp, we crossed several small creeks and saw some lovely patches of wildflowers.

After setting up our tents at Mystic Camp, we hiked 0.2 mile up to Mystic Lake for our dinner. We saw some avalanche lilies scattered along the trail.

Mt Rainier hiding behind Mineral Mountain at Mystic Lake, lots of paintbrush and lousewort in bloom.

wide angle view of Mineral Mountain and Mystic Lake

frog in the lake

another view of Mystic Lake with a field of wildflowers

loved the wildflower fields around Mystic Lake, here gentian is starting to bloom among the lousewort and paintbrush. A wonderful way to end our first day of backpacking on the Northern Loop Trail!