This was a very impromptu hike where we got incredibly lucky on multiple fronts. I left lab around noon on a random Monday and dashed over. On the drive from Seattle to Mt. Rainier, the sky was partly cloudy and the mountain wasn’t visible at all. Usually you can see it towering over the sky when driving on I-5 S from Seattle, but on this day we got to Enumclaw, WA, and there was still no sight of her. We almost gave up and turned around multiple times.
We got more optimistic after reaching the visitor center! Still, it wouldn’t be the jaw-dropping views from the hike summit that I’d seen on the internet (case in point), but it’d still be pretty.
The hike itself was tough but doable, and you were constantly rewarded with gorgeous views on every turn. Not many hikes are like that, so it was much appreciated :)
Once you get above the tree line, the ground turns into this mix of mossy, rocky terrain that was really surreal to see. Like… you were up there. The entire area felt like a liminal space, like we weren’t supposed to be there. It was at this point that we could see a ton of wildlife as well. We saw mountain goats, marmots, pikas. I’d been to Mt. Rainier before but never did a hike this high up, so it was my first time seeing all this cool wildlife.
By this time, we’d made it up to 2nd Burroughs. There are 3, spaced roughly equally apart. From here, you had panoramic views all around you. You could see the mountain, all the goats far in the distance, more of the Cascades, oh and even the Sluiskin Mountains. They were this pointed mountain range located in the backcountry near the sunrise area. I didn’t know they had a name.
By the time we got here, it was 7pm. And the summit of 3rd Burroughs was covered in clouds. And we had a 1.5hr hike back plus a 3hr drive back home. And we knew it was too cloudy to see anything, so we just turned around, but not before taking lots of pictures. I mean, you were up close to the mountain.
That glacier in the last pic is called Winthrop Glacier. The mountain “range” to the left of it is called Little Tahoma Peak. Man I wanna summit Mt. Rainier one day. Imagine conquering that monstrous peak. Imagine driving around Seattle, seeing the mountain’s out, and knowing that you climbed that thing.