The Mount Fremont Lookout hike begins at Sunrise Visitor Center, which is on the northern side of Mount Rainier National Park and is pretty easy to access from Seattle (but it is a two-hour drive ...

Robert Portello takes in the beauty of Mount Rainier while hiking to the Fremont Lookout during his first visit to the national park. The trail to the lookout will be accessible Friday when the ...

Mount Fremont Lookout Trail: The trail follows Sourdough Ridge to Frozen Lake, then climbs to the fire lookout site for great views of Rainier and the Cascades to the north and east.

Scientists have recorded a recent earthquake swarm at Mount Rainier, seen here from the Fremont Lookout trail earlier this month, but there is no reason to think an eruption is imminent. Adam Lynn ...

Despite the heat, I forged ahead with my plan: a 10-mile round-trip hike on the Sourdough and Mount Fremont Lookout trails, through meadows filled with blooming wildflowers.

At Sunrise, another of the park’s drive-to flower havens, the slow meltout is patchy, with only the Mount Fremont Lookout Trail being snow-free earlier this week.

From the parking lot, you head up the hill to the Sourdough Ridge Trail and go right (west) toward Frozen Lake and Mount Fremont Lookout.

1 of 13 | Mount Rainier from the catwalk of the Mount Fremont lookout. (Terry Wood) Mount Rainier National Park was once home to eight fire lookouts.

On that Labor Day weekend hike to Mount Fremont Lookout, a freezing fog was blowing above 7,000 feet, leaving a thick layer of ice on the trees and bushes along the trail -- the date was Aug. 30.