​Sunrise is a truly beautiful area of Mount Rainier to explore. We were lucky enough to get a taste of much of it, spending a couple nights at backcountry sites, a couple nights at a front country campground, hiking low, hiking high, seeing sunsets and sunrises.

The day after our aborted backpacking trip in the north-east corner of Mount Rainier National Park was grey and dreary, though a bit less rainy. After some discussion and perusal of our map, we decided to head to Glacier Basin, a trail that conveniently started about 50 feet from our campsite.

I was seriously itching to get back on trail after getting home from our California road-trip after completing the John Muir Trail. For Labor Day weekend we’d promised ourselves a trip to the Sunrise area of Mount Rainier, which is only open for a short time through the summer season.

The John Muir Trail is a 220-mile trail starting in Yosemite Valley of Yosemite National Park, passing through Inyo National…

Day 21: Whitney Summit to Whitney Portal
Our last morning on the JMT, our alarm went off at 5 a.m. This was no ordinary last morning. We woke up on the summit of Mt. Whitney, having slept at 14,505 feet. It was a truly extraordinary sensation to step out of the tent and be looking down on everything around us.

Day 20: Guitar Lake to Whitney Summit
After the bizarre excitement of the afternoon it was almost a relief to get back on the trail, plus I was quite anxious to prove to myself that I could summit Mt. Whitney.