A gorgeous day on the Wonderland Trail. We found easy parking at the lot in the White River Campground when we arrived at around 10:30. The hike is a pretty strenuous push uphill, but mostly in the shade of beautiful forest. I hiked with a 10 and 14 year old and it was a very reasonable challenge for them. A note that the mileage listed here takes you to the point where the Wonderland Trail connects to the final trail to Sunrise Visitor Center, which is an additional 1/2 mile one way (though not nearly as steep). If you hike all the way to the visitor center, plan to add in an extra mile round trip. We ended up clocking 7 miles by the time we made it back to the campground. 

All alone on a peak that a week ago had throngs of people hiking to it. Georg and I started about 7:45 and got to Dege about 11. From the Sunrise parking lot to Dege and back to the White River Trail intersection we saw no one. 3 hours of solitude. There were cars parked up and down the road to the full parking lot so there were a lot of people around. We figure they either did the loop, the lookout or just tried to make it to the parking lot or Glacier Basin.

We spent a half-hour plus soaking i the views and solitude. Once on top of Dege you can see why it is so popular. 360 views of a good part of the park and its surrounding peaks/hikes. We saw Tamanos, Slide, Grand Park, Skyscraper which were earlier hikes this year and then The Chimneys, Marcus Peak, all the feature around the Mountain and the almost endless meadows that greet you when first arriving at Sunrise. Also, the beginning of the White River is visible.

On the way down we met a lot of people just hoping to get to the parking lot at Sunrise. These people had started after 2 and a good portion had few supplies. One hiker had a valid reason, sunset pics from the lookout. I noticed he had a serious pack. He was from Alaska. He was amazed at the greenery. In Alaska he said most everything over 2000 feet was pretty barren once away from the coast. We have heard this a lot from through hikers we have met on the PCT. One hiker from Switzerland said he liked our mountains better because they were so green.

Happy hiking!

I saw a sign in the White River campground that tonight (9/22) was the last night of camping for the year. 

I've hiked all the Burroughses before, but not from this start and end point. It was a great balance of sun and shade, up and down. I'll say the "side" trip to Third Burroughs on this loop really adds some work. 

Started and finished early, before the overcast cloud cover came in. Although I got a lot of that traversing down to Glacier Basin. White River to Sunrise portion was a little steeper than I anticipated and made for an excellent primer for the day. 

Most foot traffic was on the Burroughs trail. Didn't see much in the way of animals, just a few baby squirrels. 

Tahoma had a massive lenticular cloud the entire time, and an oddly shaped cloud next to it that cast quite a large shadow while I was at Third Burroughs for my lunch break. 

Grateful to hike this loop in my favorite month of the year to get out. 

RT 12.0m/3900ft

We took the trail down from Sunrise to White River campground as part of our split Wonderland Trail itinerary. This was a great, easy stretch of trail for us to warm up our legs on before we hit the trail to Indian Bar the next day. There were splendid views of the mountain as we started, and tons of gorgeous mushrooms in the wide open forest towards the bottom of the trail. Everything was very easy. I'm glad that we chose to start at Sunrise to hop back on the trail for our last 2 nights on the Wonderland Trail, because I'd otherwise never hike this section on its own.

Hiked to Three Burroughs via White River trailhead, made the loop down to the valley and stopped by Glacier Basin on the way out. Wonderland Trail in particular, but all of these trails are the best quality hiking trails that exist. Absolutely perfect conditions.

It's cold and windy at the top of Three Burroughs, bring layers. A few people had gloves which was not a bad call. Views are heavily dependent on the weather. I had bad luck and the clouds never cleared.