Bottom Line:
A wild weather day, starting with dense smoke that started to blow out just as I reached Skyscraper. Gusty hold-on-to-your-hat winds all day, which helped clear the air eventually. Beautiful fluffy clouds over the mountain. Scramble route provides a different perspective of the mountain and Burroughs.
Stats:
- Distance: ~8 miles
- Vertical: 2250 ft
- Duration: 4-1/4 hours
- Road/Parking: Morning reservation at the Sunrise entrance with no wait. Plenty of parking at Sunrise. Toilets, and concession open (they now take credit cards). Cell reception near the entrance only.
- Weather: Dense smoke yielding to mostly sunny, 60-70Fs, very windy with blowing sand/dust at times (hold on to your hats!), no bugs
- Water: There was no water for filtering on this trail; carry water
- Flowers: Areas of spotty flowers, especially near some streams in upper Berkeley Park, otherwise mostly done for the year, with emerging fall color (meadows and tundra are more yellow/orange than green now).
- Trail: Lollipop loop, Sourdough to Frozen Lake, Frozen Lake to Skyscraper Pass via Wonderland, scramble from Skyscraper to 2nd Burrough, Burroughs trail back to Frozen Lake, and return on Sourdough. Trail is in good condition, although dry and dusty on Sourdough, with some blowing sand on Burroughs. Water levels are very low in the Berkeley Park tarns (never seen Frozen Lake so empty), and the meadows are mostly dried out. The scramble from Skyscraper Pass to Burroughs is a rock route with a cliffy area where a helmet is recommended. Please stay off the meadows; the route is doable entirely on rock by hugging the ridgeline, with a visible boot path most of the way. Route-finding skills required. CAUTION: Exposure and rockfall danger. Elusive animals today with just a few marmots and pika, maybe due to the smoke and wind.
- Takeaway: Fall is upon us at tundra level with some emerging red/orange foliage. First snow on the Burroughs can make for a spectacular hike - planning on it!
It looks like WTA might be further compressing images, impacting image quality. High resolution images can be found at the Instagram link below, as well as in the video I will post later today ;)
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