White River/Sunrise Area
Day 1 - White River
We left the house early and drove the 2.5 hours to the White River camp ground and arrived just as most weekend campers were leaving grabbing the best campsite in the campground. After setting up camp we walked down to the White River to have lunch before starting our hiking.
Our lunch spot on the White River
We decided to hike up the Glacier Basin trail to the basecamp for climbers who go up Rainier via the Emmons Glacier route. We actually went past Glacier Basin camp up the climbers trail until we were sitting directly across from Inter Glacier and could have continued a few hundred yards down and back up to actually touch the glacier but decided instead to just enjoy the view. On the way back down we saw a small group of mountain goats feeding on the slopes of Burrough's Mountain where we would be heading the next day.
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Small waterfall along the route. There were lots of berries here too! |
Little Tahoma in the background on the trail. |
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At the top, looking over to Inter Glacier |
Mountain Goats feeding in the distance. |
On the way back we took the spur on the Emmons Moraine trail to view the end of the glacier and the start of the White River.
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| The Emmons glacier moraine and the start of the White River | Looking back towards camp |
Day 2 - Sunrise
Originally our plan was to hike up the Wonderland Trail to Sunrise, hike to 2nd Burrough's Mountain then come back down to the Glacier Basin trail and back to camp but we got rained on during the night and awoke to clouds and drizzle. So we packed up and drove to Sunrise to see what the conditions were like and figured we at least wouldn't have to deal with a 2 mile 2400' trek up AND down in the rain if we started higher up. We arrived at Sunrise to the first snowfall of the season and pretty windy conditions. After talking to the ranger we decided to just gear up and go for it, doing the 2nd Burrough's Mountain trail and then looping back to Sunrise via Shadow Lake.
Catherine bundled to hit the trail
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| The way to 1st Burroughs | From 1st Burroughs and 2nd Burroughs in the background |
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| The actual summit at 7400' | View of Rainier from the summit |
Marmot along the way