Burroughs Mountain Trail

Rose and I said goodbye to summer in style with a nice long hike! On Saturday, August 23rd, we woke up at 4am and started driving west at 4:30am. A little over 90 minutes later, as we drove through Chinook Pass, we saw a spectacular view of Mt. Rainier over Tipsoo Lake. The big snowy white mountain was painted pink in the reflected light of sunrise. We didn't stop and take pictures, but we ooohed and ahhhhed as we drove onward (after a quick stop at the nasty smelly vault toilet on the other side of Tipsoo Lake). Our plan was to get to the White River Entrance of Mt. Rainier National Park before 7am, so we didn't need to have a timed entry permit. (This year Mt. Rainier National Park started doing timed entry reservations for the Sunrise corridor, required between 7am-5pm.) We rolled through the entrance at 6:30am and continued slowly along the winding park road, all the way up to the Sunrise parking area. It was completely full. Cars lined the road. We turned around and drove back down the road until we parked on a gravel roadside. 

Our parking spot ended up being nearly a mile from the trailhead! We sunscreened and bug sprayed, then strapped on our daypacks, positioned our hats, and and hiked up the road. Thankfully the scenery was stunning even from the road, so we had a very pleasant warm-up walk down the smooth paved road to the trailhead. On the trail, we took short breaks to catch our breath because the trail started at over 6,000 feet altitude and climbed to nearly 8,000 feet! It was breathtaking in every sense of the word. 

Thanks to the limited parking, our 9.5 mile hike turned into an 11.4 mile hike, but we didn't feel overly tired while we chugged along the trail. The Burroughs Mountain Trail has three climbs, or Burroughs (named after some guy). Each Burrough is higher than the last, but you have to hike down one before climbing the next. With each climb, the view of Mt. Rainier got bigger and better. When we reached the third Burrough, we stopped for a meal. (It was 9:45am so I can't exactly call it lunch, even though we had tuna--haha.) Then we took pictures and admired the 360 degree views before turning around and heading back down the steep rocky hill. Back at the second Burrough, we took a different fork of the trail for the final 3 miles, for variety. Our total hike time was 4 hours and 40 minutes. Total round trip drive time was 5 hours.

It was sweet and fun to spend one-on-one time with my Rose girl. We talked and hiked and drank in the scenery together. She said "I can't stop smiling, it's so beautiful here! I love this trail!" She said she liked hiking with just the two of of us and asked, "why don't we do this more often?" We vowed to go hiking weekly as much as possible next summer. I will be injury-free to make that happen! I must! My ankle was cranky during the hike, but it didn't get worse. It just complained off and on throughout the whole almost five hours of hiking that I forced it to do. Classic chronically tight tendons. I am so glad that I can pull of nice long hikes even with my ankle the way it is. It makes me appreciate the things I can do.

I narrowed it down to 99 pictures from our time on the trail. The Burroughs Mountain Trail makes me wonder how many pictures of Mt. Rainier is too many? I decided not to limit myself, and took as many pictures as my heart desired. These are 99 of the best!

 We stopped at a viewpoint on our way to the parking area because Sunrise at sunrise was too stunning not to stop.

Hiking it in along the roadside. That mountain view kept us happy!

There were still some wildflowers out--most of them looked pretty tired and ready to be done, but there were some lively patches here and there too.

 These pine trees were so deliciously textured.

The sun was still low enough in the sky at this point that it was shining up and under the evergreens. I loved the different angle of light. The trees did not last long before the trail opened up to the big blue sky.

The river caught the sunlight perfectly and looked like pure molten silver way down there.

 Texture was the word of the day.

That flat top hill to the right is the second Burrough.

Views from the top of the first Burrough.

Heading towards the second Burrough.

Burrough number 2!

Heading down the other side of the second Burrough.

Rose and I each used a trekking pole, and we were both glad we had them.

The ascent up the third Burrough was so steep, Mt. Rainier was barely visible. Once we got up top, though, it popped out in a big way...

Burrough #3!

Original picture, cell phone leaning on a slanted rock. Later I cropped the "lean" out of it:

Atop the third Burrough!

The mountain was so close and HUGE, it was hard to take pictures of from the top of the third Burrough. It was so fun to just BE there staring Mt. Rainier in the face. We heard a rumbling sound and a plume of dust, and thought maybe we saw some kind of avalanche or rock slide from afar. It made the whole mountain seem even more wild and unapproachable--I was very glad to be way over on the third Burrough rather than climbing the mountain itself!

That flat-top second Burrough in the distance, with the trail sketched on its front.

I couldn't zoom out farther!

We hiked along the ridge of the third Burrough to check out the various views.

We traded photography with some other hikers for this picture.

Rose was happiest to let me take the pictures, haha. I asked her to do just one. This is what came of it.

Heading back: these fiery red little bushes were everywhere--a tad to pretty to be called a rash, but kind of rash-ish.

The landscape of this alpine tundra was stark.

We enjoyed talking about how fragile the meadows were, haha. We parked by this sign NOT on the fragile meadow. Every car that was parked in the grass by the road got a ticket! I was glad I took the fragile meadows seriously and parked on gravel.

On the way home, we went to Costco for a big load of groceries and then when I was shaky and headachy with hunger, we got this life-giving Panda Express for a 4pm dinner before finishing the drive home. We got home at 5pm, 12.5 hours after we left. I loved making these fun memories with my Rose!