Directions: From Enumclaw drive 43 miles east on Highway 410 to the Mount Rainier National Park White River Entrance Station. Follow the Sunrise Road 17 miles to the large parking lot and visitor center at the roads end.
Trail Notes: So the Fremont Lookout hike review was done a couple years ago.  At that time I combined it with Burrows Mountains.  This time it is combined with a little bit of Berkeley Park, but not that much of it.  So I am going with Mt. Fremont as the title and the distances and time reflect this part of the hike only though this review will cover a bit of Berkeley Park as well.

So my friends Astrid and Diederick were in the United States and came up to Seattle for part of their vacation.  It was wonderful to see them.   On Wednesday we tried to go hiking up at Sunrise but the weather was not cooperative, cold and raining - no views.  So today we set out again, albeit kinda late by my standards 10:30am.  We arrived at sunrise around 1pm and set off towards Mt. Fremont.  This time the weather was more cooperative, and the skies were mostly clear though views of Mt. Rainier itself were fleeting.

The trail itself begins at the Sunrise visitor center and gradually gains the Sourdough ridge where the trail levels out en route to Frozen lake which serves as the water supply to the Sunrise visitor center.  Sourdough ridge is a nice 30-25 minute walk offering many views of Mt. Rainier and some spurious wildflowers.  Once at Frozen lake it is a short 5 minute jaunt to a junction which allows the hiker three different choices about which way to go.  The leftmost fork takes the hiker up to Burroughs Mountain, which still has a bit of a snow pack on the North side of the ridge.  Having not been up that trail in the last little bit I'll reserve judgment on how dicey crossing the snow pack is, but it looks like a slip could translate into a high velocity collision with the rocks below if one can't self arrest.  The second choice offered up at the junction is to go straight which will deliver the hiker to Berkeley Park, and either Grand Park or Skyscraper Montanan.  The third choice is to go right which takes the hiker to the Mt. Fremont Lookout.  We chose to go right since we were headed towards Mt. Fremont.

The trail here looks worse than it is.  From the junction it looks steep and challenging.  In reality it is quite easy and isn't very long either.  The climb takes about 20-30 minutes and you won't often find yourself looking for a break save for the views which are very nice.  .  Shortly after you begin the climb you will come to a level section of the trail which serves as a traverse to the lookout.  Here we spied a Marmot up in the rocks though it wasn't to be our last marmot of the day.

The Fremont Lookout itself is at the moment being restored or maintained.  The construction worker must love this assignment as from the looks of it are spending their evenings sleeping in the lookout.  A million dollar view to be sure.  From the Fremont Lookout you can spy views of just about everything.  Perhaps the most memorable part of this view is that of Grand Park the large pancaked area to the north - the largest park in Mt. Rainier. Also of note is the view of Skyscraper mountain in the distance, and most certainly Mt. Rainier when it is out.

We had lunch at Fremont Lookout and started off back down. Fortunately once we reached the junction the Dutchies were willing to go a bit further down towards Berkeley Park.  I wanted to both show them some more prolific flowers, and had hopes of seeing some Marmots close up.  We were fortunate on both counts.  Once we reached the top of the Berkeley park valley we went to the first splotch of wildflowers and a Marmot presented itself.  The marmot true to form was noching on flowers and didn't seem disturbed by our presence in the least.  In fact it seemed the Marmot was actually interested in us, sauntering up the trail towards us and perching him/herself right next to us.

Eventually the marmot got bored with us, of just became more enamored with the flowers and took off.  We opted to take a calculated break here for a while to both enjoy the scenery, and to see if the Marmot re-emerged.  Just as Astrid called for the return to the visitor center I was down near the snow pack and heard a weird digging sound.  It was the Marmot!  S/he was digging up through the snow.  First time I had ever heard of a Marmot digging though snow.  So up out of the snow with me standing no more than a meter away - our marmot had returned.  Made for a nice series of pictures if you choose to check them out in the picture section.

So I snapped off some more pictures (digital film is cheap - ) and we headed back to Seattle under the auspice of making Thai Tom for dinner.  The return was fairly uneventful though Astrid was started by an up-close Marmot experience shortly after turning around.  All and all this hike was a wonderful time, and was pulled off with a German sense of expedience -   I would have given this hike five stars but we never did really get a good view of Mt. Rainier...which was something I really wish Astrid and Diederick could have seen.