It was a beautiful,crisp day in mid September, so we decided to go up to Sunrise in Mt. Rainier National Park to experience the beauty of the high country.  We had been there before and it hadn't struck me as being very wheelchair friendly.  This time a little curiosity turned our trip into a fun adventure.

     We parked  and found a pleasant accessible picnic site just west of the lodge.  We started our picnic and  quickly found ourselves captivated by the sounds of the meadow. The swoosh of the camp robber's wings broke the silence and then the glacier wind started to work it's way down  from the high peaks until we felt the cool breeze hit us in the face.  We finished our picnic and decided to go exploring.                We started out on a fairly smooth trail that  wound through a stunning meadow filled with vermillion blueberry bushes and purple wildflowers.  We came to a junction in the trail and met an older gentleman playing a banjo. The beautiful sound of his music followed us down the trail to an intersection with a gravel road which we decided to follow. The road traversed a sidehill that provided spectacular vistas of Mt. Tahoma and the north face of  Mt. Rainier. A dusting of fresh snow  on the upper peaks added to the beauty.  We continued to the end of the road where a trail branched off toward Shadow Lake. It was fairly smooth going at first on the well traveled path, but we had a tricky crossing of a dry creek bed.  The meadows and rock formations got even more beautiful as we ventured further into  the backcountry. We wheeled past Sunrise Camp where a group of backpackers were setting up their tents. We wondered what they were thinking when the saw a lady in a wheelchair stroll by. Another hiker told us the lake was just around the corner so we pushed on.  Unfortunately, the trail was lined with timbers which created one last obstacle.  I cleared branches and  rocks along the side of the trail and backed Debi down the last section.  We came to a rock outcropping that provided a nice viewpoint of the serene Shadow Lake.  We enjoyed seeing the reflections off the lake and spent time taking in the solitude.  We came to the realization that we may have been the first wheelchair visitors to this beautiful place.

     The trip back up the trail seemed steeper than I remembered and  we weren't sure where the road ended. We were glad to see the parking lot as we watched the shadows grow long and the sun go down. We were quite proud of our accomplishment. Our journey had turned into one of our best adventures. Little did we know that it would be our last trip to the high country together as Debi's condition soon began to deteriorate and she passed away the following spring..

Directions:

Take Highway 410 from Enumclaw to Mt.Rainier National Park.

Entrance fee required

Length of trail: approximately 3.0 miles

Trail surface: gravel road, some rocks on trail

Accessible outhouse  at parking lot