Mud Mountain Rd. is a windy road that parallels the White River for most of it's 5.3 miles at which point we arrived at the Mud Mountain Dam View Point. The park has great play areas for kids and some nice areas for picnicking. From the parking lot the walk to the view point is only about 25 yards. From the east side of the view point you see the White River with tall canyon walls on each side. On the west side you see the Mud Mountain Dam. There is no water behind the Dam as it is not a conventional hydroelectric dam. This dam's purpose is to prevent down stream flooding. It does so by a pair of flow tubes. The lower tube is 9 feet in diameter. If the flow of the river becomes two overwhelming for the first tube the water begins to back up and rise behind the dam. When the water reaches a certain altitude or level of the second tube, which is 20 feet in diameter,  the water begins to exit down stream. The dam is a road block for spawning Salmon so the salmon are collected down stream and put in a special tanker truck that moves them 5 miles up stream of the dam to a place where they are released. The newly hatches salmon make there way safely down stream by way of the tubes. The view was great and they have some information placards you can read to find out all this information.

After a look at the dam we headed east on the Mud Mountain Dam Rd and it took us to hwy 410. We road hwy 410 east bound for 13 miles paralleling the White River and passing through Federation Forest State Park to Greenwater. Greenwater is a very small town and this is the last stop for fuel for the next 54 miles. They have a sign next to the fuel station reminding you of this. I recommend fueling up in Enumclaw or you will pay for it. How do I know this? I had to fuel up in Green water and the price was $4.39 a gallon. That is almost 70 cents a gallon more then in Enumclaw. And that was for regular unleaded. Now that's price gouging! The station is next to the Greenwater store. You pay for your fuel in the store. This is a popular stop for bikes heading up and back.

Once back on the road we rode hwy 410 another 14.9 miles paralleling the White River most of the way to the MT Rainier Park Entrance. Once in the park its another 4.6 miles to where we turned right on to Sunrise Rd. Our next stop was at the toll window about a mile or two up the road. The fee to get in was $5 and it's good for 7 days. Save your receipt if your planning to visit Paradise on the other side. It will let you gain entry without another charge as long its still valid. As we rode on we were treated to 12.7 miles of riders bliss with the exception of the dips and rises in the asphalt. You really have to keep your speed down or you will get thrown from you bike like it was a Bull. Turn after turn and view after view. This is my favorite ride up the mountain and I was definitely in riders heaven. I started to notice the air was really cooling as we climbed in altitude. There was a slight breeze and it seemed to through my mesh jacket to my core. We pulled off at the Sunrise Point view area. The sun was poking through the clouds and we had partial visibility of the Mountain and surrounding hills. I was amazed how nice the weather turned out as it looked earlier like we wouldn't see any of the mountain. I really like this view point because on the south side you see the Mountain and surrounding hills. On the north side you look down into the green water of Sunrise lake. The elevation at this point is 6,100 feet above see level. The temperature was approximately 45 degrees.

After taking time to get some photo's and eat some snacks we started up the mountain for the remainder of our climb. We continued up the mountain for another 2.5 miles. During which time the elevation increased to 6,400 feet above see level. We were treated to an almost continuous view of  MT Rainer all the way up to the parking lot and Lodge. The lot was almost full with cars and RV's. Surprising enough there were only a few bikes including ours. Allot of folks were heading for the hiking trails or coming back from them. We stood around taking in the scenery and waiting for the clouds to move and give us a opportunity to snap some photos of the Mountain. Since it was now the afternoon we had the sun in our eyes when it did get through the clouds. The clouds actually helped us get some OK photos. The best time to view this side of the mountain is sunrise. And maybe that is how it got it's name. After about 40 minutes  we started our decent. The trip back was west bound hwy 410 into Enumclaw. I was more then happy to lose some of the altitude as the air became much more tolerable. Note to self... No mesh jacket when riding up mountains in 45 degree weather. Once through Enumclaw I rode through Auburn and took hwy 18 west bound to south bound SR 167. I rode SR 167 into Puyallup and turned on to River Rd. From here it was on to hwy 509 and back down along Ruston Way to home. It was great to see Sunrise again and as always I want to go back soon!

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