It was a day of unexpected encounters. The first one was just a mile past the Sunrise entrance where an upside down car was lying in the road. No idea how that happened. The driver looked okay.
We arrived at the Sunrise parking area at 9:15 am. There were plenty of parking spots available. As we headed down towards Berkeley Park, there was a small group watching a bear foraging in the meadow near the trail. We carefully made our way past the bear at the curve in the trail where we had to cross in front and then in back of the bear. There were plenty of yellow and pink monkey flowers along Lodi Creek. There are also wildflowers in the meadows.
After Berkeley Park camp, we ascended to Grand Park. There were great views of Mount Rainier. Then we hiked about a half mile towards Fire Creek camp. There is a magnificent viewpoint with Mount Rainier, Winthrop Glacier, and the White River.
On the way back, just past Berkeley Park camp, we encountered a lone mountain goat grazing by the trail. We waited a bit and then very slowly approached the goat. He ambled off across the stream.
The sky clouded over and the cool breeze made the ascent pretty easy. We saw a number of marmots and a group of mountain goats on the ridge below Fremont Lookout. At the viewpoint on Sourdough Ridge, some hikers had spotted a bear and a cub down in the Huckleberry Basin.
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