Part 2, Emmons Glacier Overlook to Second Burroughs Mountain




Not long after leaving the Glacier Overlook, I officially entered the Burroughs Mountain area, as you can see by the sign. The terrain was as promised, quite similar to the tundra in extreme arctic areas, at least from what I've seen on the Discovery Channel or in movies! You can see the vast meadows which surround the Sunrise lodge in the distance. The trail up to First Burroughs Mountain traverses some incredibly unusual and amazing rock piles. In some sections, the rocks are thousands and thousands of pieces a few inches thick laying on top of each other. Most are horizontal, but in the last picture, they're all aligned vertically! Cool!



The hillside here really drops off down to the White River, about 2500 feet below. A little ice cave can be seen at the snout of the Emmons Glacier, the largest glacier in the continental USA, and a bit farther up is a strange pool that look like it's full of mud. The interesting rock formations continue along the trail. I stopped and got out my binoculars to check the upper mountain for climbers, and saw a grour of four people somewhere around the 12,400 foot level, roughly even with the top of the Disappointment Cleaver. Too bad they are barely visible with the binoculars, because that means not at all visible with my camera's meager 3X zoom.



Before long I reached the wide plateau of First Burroughs Mountain, and all the rock gave way to open tundra. Though both Grand Park and Burroughs Mountain owe their large flat expanses to ancient lava flows, they could hardly be more different in appearance! Here there are no fields of grass or lupines, and certainly no trees! What a difference 1600 feet gain in elevation makes, eh? In the background, the flat top of Secound Burroughs and the trail heading to it are clearly visible. I encountered my first other hiker of the day between First and Second Burroughs. Like me, he was planning to head up to the Fremont lookout later, but he only went as far as Second Burroughs and turned around.



The top of Second Burroughs is really just a brief jaunt from the junction with the trail to Frozen Lake. However, from here, you obtain a much better perspective on the unusual shape of First Burroughs. To the northeast, the Mount Fremont lookout is visible, as is the trail leading down to Berkeley Park. Here's another slightly different view on the cave at the front of the Emmons Glacier, and the mud pool above. At this point, I was higher than I'd ever hiked to from Sunrise.



It didn't take long for the local denizens to make their appearance known! The wildlife of Rainier is well known for it's surprisingly tame behavior, and this is always more true when you have food and you're the only person around! This little chipmunk popped its head up and ran all around me, waiting for a handout. All I had with me were Powerbars, but the cute little bugger didn't seem to mind, coming right into my hand, on my leg, or on my arm to grab the morsels. Maybe I should call it a Power Chipmunk. More towards the western edge of Second Burroughs lies a stone monument, a memorial to Edmond S. Meany, a former longstanding president of The Mountaineers. Sadly, someone has stolen the bronze plaque that used to sit on top of it. It's a really cool structure nonetheless, with a great bench facing the mountain in all it's glory. That, plus I think it looks like a giant Tortoise. I'll be moving at Tortoise speed once I start heading up to Third Burroughs.