On Saturday, September 8th, 2007, we drove to the east side of Mt Rainier to the Sunrise visitors center, at an elevation of 6400 feet. We had decided to take another hike. This one would take us farther and higher than our last hike to High Rock Lookout.

My photos with Mt Rainier in the background were all shot towards the sun - no other choice. So the colors and saturation / contrast weren't as nice as I'd like...

We headed north from the visitors center to the Sourdough Ridge trail. This trail took us west to Frozen Lake. From there we headed south to First and Second Burroughs Mountains.

The elevation at Second Burroughs was 7400 feet. The temps were in the upper 60's with some wind. It was a gorgeous day.

On the way down, we turned right at the trailhead atop First Burroughs Mountain. This trail took us to Sunrise camp. In addition to being the long way back, it was a rocky, rough descent to the camp, which was below Sunrise. This meant our final mile was all uphill - just enough to remind us of how tired we were. It was also somewhat intimidating, with a severe drop at the edge of the trail for a time. Next time, we'll return the way we came. I think if we had taken the loop the other direction, we probably would have turned back, intimidated by the trail and climb.

Links:http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/upload/sunrise_trails.pdf (map)
http://www.localhikes.com/Hikes/Burroughs_Mountain_7602.asp
http://www.wta.org/~wta/cgi-bin/wtaweb.pl?3 tg fetch english 1139