A Tale of Two Volcanoes: Sunset at Sunrise - Part 1

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31 July 2003: Sunset at Sunrise, Part 1

Today was a half day at Vikram's conference, specially arranged so that participants could go to Mt. Rainier National Park. I spent the morning doing laundry. The facilities didn't work quite as well as I expected, so the clothese needed a second round of drying. That shortened the time I was keeping to walk around the ski resort. Nonetheless, I went on a short walk. I attempted to follow one of the ski runs upward, but the slope was too much for me so I went along another path. This went through the forest. I heard so many birds, but saw none! My walk didn't last long as lunch time was near.

The location of the resort is very scenic, being in the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forest. I was told that the views of Rainier were great too, but one had to climb to the top of one of the hills to see Rainier. We saw mule deer and elk at night, and tree swallows, stellar jays and Clark's nutcrackers during the day. There was a heated pool to soak in as well.

After lunch both of us went to Sunrise, the highest point in the park that is accessible by road at 6400 ft elevation. We had visited it in 1998, but I had forgotten how mountainous the road to Sunrise is. It was not quite has heart-stopping as the Windy Ridge road, but it came close at times. It is in the rain-shadow region of Rainier and as a result is rather dry. The vegetation is mostly scrub and grass. Everything grows even more slowly here than at Paradise.

Vikram and me with Rainier in the background, at the Sunrise Lake viewpoint, on the way to Sunrise. The lake was a deep blue as is characteristic of all these mountain tarns. (I saw many of them from the plane on the way back.) The water in them is very clear. It absorbs large amounts of red, yellow and green light, but not as much of blue contained in sunlight, so the water takes on a deep blue hue.

The mountain, from the same location as the previous photo.

After arriving at Sunrise, we spent time at the visitor center and the gift shop. The ranger at the visitor center advised us to walk the Sourdough Ridge Trail as it would give us good views of the surrounding mountains. (Here is a map of the trails at Sunrise.)

Chipmunk along trail to Sourdough Ridge at Sunrise.
View to the south-east from Sourdough Ridge, Sunrise.
View to the west from Sourdough Ridge, Sunrise. Rainier is rather washed out with the sun behind it. This is why this spot is called Sunrise - one has to visit at Sunrise to catch the beauty of the rising sun illuminating it, but that wasn't going to happen on our trip.
  Two views of the same marmot basking in the setting sun, on the way to Frozen Lake, Sunrise. Somehow, our walk along Sourdough Ridge Trail turned into a walk to Frozen Lake, which was fine.

Frozen Lake. What a disappointment to see that it was no longer frozen. At least there was snow on its banks.
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All photos are copyrighted 2003 onwards. Please contact me (ndcruz at depaul dot edu) if you wish to use them for commercial purposes. Otherwise, please credit Noella D'Cruz when using them for personal or educational purposes.