[Pribbs]

GPS track: http://www.movescount.com/moves/move238505273 From Sunrise Point parking lot we already had a great view of the peaks and the approach through the valley of White River Park.

We set off just after 8am down the trail toward Sunrise Lake, descending off the ridge and into the valley below. At 1/2 mile we hung a right and followed the pleasant trail to the peaceful Clover Lake at 1.5 miles.

From there we continued on to a junction at 2.7 miles, and went left to Hidden Lake. The trail steeply leads to Hidden Lake at 3.1 miles. This pretty lake is probably the best hike in the park that does not have a view of Rainier.

We followed the trail along the lake and at the far end of the lake we stayed left at a junction and continued beyond the end of the maintained trail. From here the trail starts a bit brushy before it enters an open meadow hillside as the trail climbs really steeply up to the pass on the ridge.

From here we proceeded NW to get ourselves into the big open meadows of the ridge. It smelled like a petting zoo and there was plenty of "evidence" of both goats and elk.

We headed north on the ridge and then NE up through the woods to the summit of Palisades. The cliffs on the north side of the peak are really dramatic looking. There is also a rock glacier below, which contains ice deep within the rocks underground.

We returned back down to the meadows and proceeded south past a small lake and aimed straight for the north face of Marcus Peak. From afar there doesn't look like there would be any route up that face, but as you get closer, it becomes more clear.

We started on loose scree and rock but saw a nice looking rib of more solid rock, and we scrambled this up to the NW ridge. From here it was a straightforward scramble to the top.

From here the plan was to follow the ridge south back toward the trailhead. There did not appear to be any scramble route off the south face of the peak. The plan was to descend the NW gully and then find a way around to the south side of the peak. We began down the loose NW gully, but may've gone down too far beyond the ideal place to exit it and work south. We ended up going down and around a pretty steep and loose face but we eventually made it to the ridge on the south side of the peak.

Just when we thought we were on a nice rice top, we reached more cliffs and steep loose gullies. As shown in the photo below, we could see two trails out ahead: one atop the ridge, and one traversing through the green slopes off to the left. The issue was getting to them. Maybe we missed something off to the right/west side of the ridge or something do-able on the ridge, but we instead descended off to the left/east to try to wrap around some of the cliff bands below us. We ended up finding a way to traverse back across the loose mountainside and we reached the notch on the right side of the photo below back on the ridge.

From that notch again there may've been something that went right to stay on the ridge top trail. But instead, we picked the lower trail in the green stuff on the left, so we descended and made a descending traverse south to meet up with the trail.

We followed this trail until is began to climb back up to the ridge again, so we left it and traversed across the hillside where we saw the trail continue across a talus field under the peak ahead. We regained the trail across the talus field as it wrapped around the east side of the peak. The trail would come and go in the meadows, but we always saw it continue on the other side.

We crossed through a large meadow below Dege Peak before having to descend to cross through an upper basin.

We could see the trail on the far side leading steeply up to the Sunrise Point ridgeline, so we aimed for that trail and hiked up that to meet up with the main Sourdough Ridge Trail, which we followed back to the trailhead. Looking back at Palisades in the distance and all the ground we just covered, it was hard to believe Palisades was only 3 miles away. It looked and felt more like 5. But in the end, the whole loop came out to be a bit less than 8 miles and only a bit over 6.5 hours round trip!