Food · Mount Rainier National Park
A 1931 timber lodge for coffee or ice cream after a hike.
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The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Mount Rainier Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Mount Rainier National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Mount Rainier audio tourRecorded for this place
Sunrise: Walk to Emmons Vista“Sunrise is ahead, with the visitor center and day lodge at sixty-four hundred feet. For a short visit, I'd take the half-mile round trip to Emmons Vista and continue past the first overlook to the second.”
Plays as you drive up to Sunrise Day Lodge in the Parkwolf Mount Rainier Tour Guide.
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“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Sunrise Day Lodge is a historic wood-shingled day lodge in the subalpine meadows at Sunrise, about 6,400 feet up. It serves as the area's seasonal cafeteria and gift shop, not an overnight inn. After a hike, it's an easy stop for coffee, ice cream, snacks, gifts or basic supplies. I wouldn't plan a big meal around it: the hot-food selection can be limited, and service runs only part of the short summer season.
The lodge shares the Sunrise plaza and parking area with the visitor center, picnic area and trail network. Sunrise Road usually opens in late June or early July and closes in late September or early October; it runs 14 miles from the SR 410 turnoff. Sunrise gets busy, so the park recommends a weekday or arriving earlier or later in the day. Check road conditions before setting out.
A separate comfort station stands beside the lodge. The visitor center across the plaza is another historic building, so don't mistake it for part of the lodge.
The lodge opened unfinished after a July 15 dedication in 1931. Tacoma architects Russell, Lumm and Lance designed it as the service wing of a much larger hotel, with more wings and a lobby that were never built. The 1929 crash helped stop the resort plan before it grew beyond this building.
More than 200 tourist cabins once stood in rows behind the lodge. The lodge fed their guests and supported the concession operation; the cabins were sold and removed during World War II. The surviving building makes more sense when you picture the resort town that was planned around it.
Sunrise is also known as Yakima Park. The National Park Service records that Yakama people used these meadows for summer hunting and gathering. It also notes that subalpine meadows have provided Indigenous people with plants and animals for thousands of years, long before this tourist complex was built.
On clear summer days, Mount Rainier and Emmons Glacier rise behind the lodge and its meadow setting. For a photo, keep the lodge's steep shingled gables in the foreground with meadow and mountain behind them. The closer Emmons Glacier overlooks are a separate walk on Sunrise Rim Trail, about a mile round trip from the parking area.
Wildlife
466 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
383 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
10 sightingsWolverineMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
58 sightingsElkMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
574 sightingsMule DeerMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
1,853 sightingsHoary MarmotMost seen around 6 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Mount Rainier. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ModerateMount Fremont Lookout Trail5.6 mi · 3.5 hr · At the trailheadA rocky ridge climb to Rainier’s 1934 fire lookout.
ModerateDege Peak via Sourdough Ridge Trail4.2 mi · 2.5 hr · At the trailheadA short, open ridge walk to Dege Peak’s sweeping view.
ModerateSkyscraper Pass Trail7.4 mi · 4.5 hr · At the trailheadA rolling ridge walk to a sandy pass above alpine meadows.
ChallengingBerkeley Park Trail7.4 mi · 5.5 hr · At the trailheadSwap Sunrise's open ridge for Berkeley Park's lush alpine basin.
ModerateBurroughs Mountain Trail6.2 mi · 4.5 hr · At the trailheadA high ridge walk puts Rainier and its glaciers front and center.
ModerateSunrise Rim Trail Loop to First Burroughs4.7 mi · 3 hr · At the trailheadHigh loop to First Burroughs, with Shadow Lake and Emmons Glacier.
ModerateSourdough Ridge Trail West to Frozen Lake3 mi · 2 hr · At the trailheadA short ridge walk with big Rainier views and a lake turnaround.
EasySilver Forest Trail1.9 mi · 1.3 hr · 0.1 mi awayTwo overlooks frame Rainier and Emmons Glacier above open meadows.
Visitor center · 0.1 mi awaySunrise Visitor CenterA historic alpine trail hub with glacier exhibits and Rainier views.
Picnic area · 0.1 mi awaySunrise Picnic AreaPack a lunch for a tree-lined picnic with clear-day Rainier views.
Sight · 0.2 mi awayEmmons Vista OverlooksA short meadow walk to Rainier’s biggest glacier.
Scenic pullout · 0.8 mi awaySunrise Road White River ViewRainier and Adams rise above the White River Valley on Sunrise Road.
Campground · 0.9 mi awayWhite River CampgroundSunrise-area hikes start right from this wooded riverside camp.
Sight · 0.9 mi awayWhite River Patrol CabinA 500-foot walk to the White River area's oldest cabin.
Picnic area · 0.9 mi awayWhite River Picnic AreaA wooded meal stop with eight grills and nearby trail access.
Sight · 2.1 mi awayMount Fremont Fire LookoutA long ridge hike to a 1934 wooden fire lookout.Parkwolf’s Mount Rainier ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
