Mt. Rainier - Burroughs Mountain

On a cloudy Sunday morning, my hiking partner for the day arrived to my house bright and early, still a little bit partied out from the night before. She had a chance to catch up on sleep on the drive there though. I was a little worried the weather would inhibit views of the mountain, which would have put a damper on my friend's first visit to Mt. Rainier. But alas, as we got closer and closer to our destination, the skies slowly opened up revealing the blue sky and sunshine. By the time we finished though, the clouds had moved in... hiking early has it's advantages :)

Anyways, our destination was the Burroughs Mountains; a hike I've done a few times and ranks as one of my favorites in Mt. Rainier National Park. We started out ascending from the parking lot to the Sourdough Ridge Trail and heading towards Frozen Lake. Hiking along this trail offers views of our eventual destination and path back; as well as majestic views of Mt. Rainier, glimpses into the Emmons Morraine, and many surrounding peaks in the Cascade Mountains.

At Frozen Lake, there's a 5 way junction of trails that will take you back to Sunrise via the Wonderland Trail; up to the Mt. Fremont Lookout; to Berkely Park, Skyscraper Pass and beyond via the Wonderland Trail; or the path we took, the Burroughs Mountain Trail up to First Burroughs Mountain. There were still some patches of snow along the trail up First Burroughs Mountain, but the path was well trodden and easy going... much different from when I did this hike about a month prior (which was rather scary!).

One thing about me, I don't have a fear of heights; but I do have a fear of falling. And in the case of last month, a fear of slipping on the very small, hardly beaten snowy path and falling down the very steep hill and bashing my head on the rocks below. Luckily for me, my fear kept me very cautious and I managed to avoid all of that :)

Back to this hike, we made it up First Burroughs Mountain without any incident, and continued on the Burroughs Mountain Trail past the Sunrise Rim Trail junction up to Second Burroughs Mountain. The views atop Second Burroughs Mountain are A-MAZ-ING!! Mt. Rainier is so close it feels like you can reach out and grab it. You have great views of the surrounding area; Inter Glacier and Glacier Basin, the Emmons Glacier and the Emmons Morraine and the White River, and west towards Third Burroughs Mountain. I actually didn't know there was a Third Burroughs Mountain until today; when I overheard a park ranger talking about it. Today though, Second Burroughs was our turn around point; and Third Burroughs will have to wait for another day.

We headed back down towards First Burroughs Mountain, then took the Sunrise Rim Trail. This trail takes you down the other side of First Burroughs Mountain, down to Sunrise Camp, Shadow Lake, and back to the Sunrise parking lot... with plenty of breath-taking views along the way.

Overall, we covered 6.67 miles and 1600 feet of total ascent in 3 hours (2.5 hours moving, 30 minutes of resting and enjoying the views). As I mentioned somewhere in this massive wall of text, this is one of my favorite hikes on Mt. Rainier; and I highly recommend it! Just be careful and check trail conditions to avoid getting caught off guard with potential snow covered trails.