This campground barely qualifies as backcountry, being little more than a mile from the trailhead at the Sunrise Visitor Center. It is located off of a popular day hike to the Glacier Overlook—which provides an excellent view of Emmons Glacier. There are community bear boxes to share, no water, and no fire. There is also an outhouse but plug your nose for this one! Note that Shadow lake is a small hop, skip, and a jump from the camp. There are also group sites. The camp itself wasn’t very busy when we were around. If can be a great base camp for the Burroughs, or a stopping over point in the Wonderland or many other great trails.

If this is part of a longer trip, Sunrise Village is only a little over a mile away and has some hot food grabs, and minimal groceries. Not sure if there are places to send boxes to here—but putting Wonderland on my to do list personally. Rainier was simply amazing.