Shadow Lake, Mt. Rainier National Park, 2019

Cloudy and no view of the top of Mt. Rainier

The flowers are starting to bloom in Mt. Rainier National Park, Sunrise was open, and we decided to do a short, lesser elevation gain hike.  The parking lot at Sunrise was nearly full when we arrived before 9 am.  It was about 48 degrees F and we added a couple of layers before starting out to our planned destination of Shadow Lake.  We stopped by this pretty lake on the way down from Second Buroughs in 2016 but this time we were just going to the lake.  It is about a 4 mile round trip with 200 ft of elevation gain.  The parking lot is at 6400 ft and the lake is at 6200 ft making the return trip mostly uphill.  There were a few small odd patches of snow here and there.  

Sunrise parking area, still lots of clouds

Like most of the trails in the park this one is mostly wide, packed dirt with some rocks, and no dogs allowed.   Usually when we hike at Rainier we do not count hikers because it is so popular and heavily used.  This was a Saturday so probably more people than a weekday but even so we did not see as many people as we expected.  

Part way up the old road leading to Sunrise Camp is this sign 

 One of the first flowers to come up after the snow recedes is the Western Anemone or Pasque Flower also called a Mop Head.  On this hike we saw all three stages of the bloom from the blue white buds above,

 to the pretty white and yellow flower and 

finally the beginnings of the Mop Head phase that lasts all summer long.

Another early bloomer is the yellow Glacier Lily.  There were thousands of these delicate lilies almost everywhere we looked.  

 Yellow stream violets

Jacob's Ladder

Marsh Marigolds

 Phlox

 Cinquefoil

Veronica

Slightly darker Veronica

Lupine

Magenta Paintbrush

 Sitka Valerian

 Bear grass

 

Yellow Lousewort

 

 Penstemon

 Arnica

Mountain daisy

 Another sign

and we have arrived at Shadow Lake

We followed the loop trail and came upon this meadow with sky clearing

 but still too many clouds for a mountain top view

Large group of Bear grass 

The temperature while hiking was very pleasant.  We heard birdsong, some water noise from small creeks, and had just a slight breeze.  There were several chipmunks and one golden mantled ground squirrel.  

When we returned to the parking lot the temperature had gone up to 56 degrees F but by the time we got back to the city it was 80 degrees F.