Juniper Ridge trail (#261) climbs steadily to the south, through old clear-cut for 2 miles, until some view and patches of flowers and mosquitoes. It continues until the ridge in another mile. 
3 of us walked up (no obvious trail, however, short and not difficult) Juniper Peak, while 3 waited on the ridge. View here is superb. Because of the clouds, we only saw Adam, Hood, and St Helen. On a good day, the most dominant feature would be Rainier. Vast expanse of green in between. Quite a lot of flowers in patches. No mosquito at all. ~1.5 hours later, our 3 drivers joined us. They had to shuttle 2 cars to the other trailhead. The best hour of this hike.
We continued south along the ridge, but soon descended into the woods, regained elevation next to Sunrise Peak. 8 of 9 of us walked up to Sunrise Peak, only ~200' higher than Juniper Peak, but doubled work. On the top, remnant of prior fire lookout and broken glasses can be reached by a solid metal railing. Lunched here, soaking in the 360° view, until Goat Rocks escaped clouds.
More descent. As we approached Jumbo Rock, we could see a family of goats lying out on the cliff. I was the only one who went up to Jumbo Rock (a short walk uphill), so I could take a closeup photo of the goats from above. Continued south, very sandy, many waist high bushes (huckleberry? Knicknack?), grass. Found one small patch of snow close to trail. More motorbikes. 
The last 5 miles is downhill in the woods. Really bad trail, deep V or U shaped, sand and rock. At some point, we turned left to Dark Meadow trailhead, which is on the other side of a creek. This is paved, unlike the first trailhead. More time for car shuttle.
Total ~15 miles (one way), 4400' accumulated ascent (5300' descent). Have to come back for the acclaimed beargrass show, or maybe in fall.
Camping: we stayed at Ion Creek campground (on FR76). Ideal location to the two trailheads this weekend. Reserved a double site ($38/night): a bit small for 8 tents. Otherwise, quite nice. Pit toilet is relatively clean. Water spigots. Crash cans. Every campsite has a picnic table (we have two), a fire pit (they sell firewood), enough tree separating the sites. It's a big campground. Not many mosquitoes.
Direction: Forest Road 25 south of Randle. Turn east onto FR 23. Continue south 9 miles and turn right onto FR 28. Continue 1 mile and turn left onto FR 29. Four miles down FR 29, turn left onto FR 2904, and in another 4 miles (gravel) was parking at about 3600 feet elevation.
