[TokyoTessie]

My husband and I decided to brave the crowds and do some meadow roving up at Sunrise this holiday weekend. Normally, we try to avoid the weekend, but we knew that NPS needed us, so we bucked up to face the crowds. His daughter was in town from SoCal, so it was also a good opportunity to expose the next generation to the concept of stewardship. We decided to meander on over to Skyscraper Pass, mostly because we did not want to stay at Frozen Lake all day. We did hang out there for about an hour in each direction, advising people not to go up the Burroughs Mountain trail because the dicey snowfields were still there, and there had been a severe injury the day before (head injury + broken arm) by someone who slipped and fell on the snow. Most heeded our advice, but a few kept on going. Oh, well. Onward to Skyscraper. The crowds thinned out quite a bit compared to the Frozen Lake area. As we descended into Berkeley Park, we could see the snowfields on Burroughs. Peole were picking their way through them, very slowly. There were three that needed to be crossed, and from our vantage point, we saw that if you slipped and slid down the first one, you would get banged up on the rocks below but probably would survive, but if you slid down the second and third snowfields, there was an excellent chance that your momentum would carry you past the rocks and throw you over a cliff at the base. We watched for a while, so that if someone did fall, we could radio it in. Not a whole lot of flowers up on the higher slopes of Berkeley. As we ascended the trail towards Skyscraper, there were a couple of gorgeous flower fields past Lodi Creek. There was one small snowfield to cross just before attaining the top of the pass, but this one was nowhere near as treacherous as the Burroughs ones, especially if you have poles. There was one guy in sneakers, without poles, who decided to stop, and I respected that decision. At the top, the Mountain dominated the skyline, with views of Mineral Mountain and Skyscraper Peak to the northwest. Mileage 7.2. Total elapsed time 7 hours (this was a working hike). Wildlife seen: 1 marmot, 1 ground squirrel; 2 reports of a bear in Berkeley Park. Also worth noting: flow control at the White River entrance in the afternoon - they were letting 20-25 cars in at a time, depending on how many parking spaces opened up at Sunrise. This has been a regular occurance on summer weekends this year.

Looking toward Skyscraper Pass

Mt Fremont lookout, Grand Park in the distance

Peek-a-boo Mountain

Future Meadow Rover?

Mineral Mountain

Old Desolate

The Mountain

looking down the snowfield just before attaining Skyscraper Pass

Lupines

Can't get enough flowers

Looking back towards Burroughs

Oh, the fragrance of the lupines

walking through the flowers

Rock garden

Magenta Paintbrush

More lupines

Lupines

Lodi Creek

Looking down into Berkeley Park

Cowlitz Chimneys

Just below Skyscraper Pass looking towards Mt Fremont

Panning right

Panning right

Panning right

[Hikingqueen]

Beautiful, your daughter and the mountain! My friend saw the cinnamon bear in berkeley yesterday. I was shopping in a mall

[TokyoTessie]

I am really chicken when it comes to bears. We had originally planned on going down to Berkeley because we had heard the flowers were beautiful, but chickened out and headed up to Skyscraper when we had 2 people tell us about the bear.

[the Zachster]

Good for you for helping out the NPS as well as getting an enjoyable hike in! Managing the visitors requires a pretty thick skin sometimes I'm sure. I was in the Park on Sunday and went up to visit with Howard (the Park Ranger at Tipsoo Lake). He said he was spending his days chasing dogs and people picking bouquets of flowers... Poor Howard! Those left over snowy patches on Burroughs actually get worse as the season goes on...I like to do it when there's plenty of snow! And it's impossible to know what everyone's skill/comfort level is on that stuff. Sorry to hear about the accident the other day. Not a surprise though.