Started at Mowich Lake around 9 am on Saturday. We got the last spot in the parking lot - cars after us were starting to park on the shoulder of the road in. We had left Seattle shortly after 6 am to drive down, the drive included a short detour to the Carbon River ranger station to pick up our permits.

1st day: Hiked the Spray Park trail up through Spray Park, Seattle Park, and down to Cataract Valley where we camped. We did take the short detour to Spray Falls - we were slowed down by several large families navigating the narrow trail, but the side trip was worth it. Spray Park was beautiful, but the bugs kept us from lingering too long. My 18% DEET bug spray was no match for them. Cataract Valley was a nice camp - very quiet, no long distance views but beautiful forest. Not as many bugs there as up in the park.

2nd day: Hiked down to the Carbon River, to meet up with the Wonderland Trail, took a short detour to the Carbon Glacier overlook, then followed the Wonderland Trail to Ipsut Creek campground where we spent the night. There were not nearly as many bugs at the lower elevations. Note that the Wonderland Trail now goes only on the east side of the river, so we got to cross the river twice - I think these crossings (first on a suspension bridge, and second on several log bridges with views of Rainier) were the highlights of our trip. Ipsut Creek campground felt eerie since there were many remnants of the old road and the old life as a car camp. The spots along the river were the nicest, and we enjoyed the time here.

3rd day: Woke early to cook breakfast and pack up, hiked out to rejoin the Wonderland Trail heading up to Ipsut Pass and back to Mowich Lake. The initial climb up to the pass was through forest with many waterfalls and cascades. Upon leaving the forest, however, the bugs descended on us and the trail turned very steep. The good part was that the bugs kept us moving quickly up the steep and difficult terrain all the way to the pass. I have heard people recommend hiking this loop in the opposite direction due to this steep section, but I'm not sure that it would have been that much better going down. We were happy to get to the pass, and the last section of the trail (relatively flat, mostly along the lake) was heaven.

All in all, a great trip - less crowded than other parts of the park (except for the parts closest to Mowich Lake) and highly recommended.

7/21 hiked in to Ipsut and camped there (5 mi)
7/22-23 camped at Carbon River camp & did day hikes from there towards Mystic and Spray Park
7/24 – after lunch hiked out from Carbon R. Camp to Carbon R. Ranger Station (8.5 mi/3 hrs)

Overall - NPS-quality trails with recently installed stringers over every water course, newly worked drainage, and excellent signage. This is an amazing area with few visitors, lots of snow-free destinations (even this year!), and all the flowers, mountain views, stream/creek/river beauty, and wildlife you could possibly absorb.

Ranger Station to Ipsut – totally clear and well maintained – a lot of bicycles this sunny weekend so watch for that. Most bikers were very good about yelling as they approached which was nice with the sound of the river making it otherwise hard to hear. Campground is also well maintained and had few other campers the Thurs night we were there. Pit toilets and bear poles for food provided.

Ipsut to Carbon River Camp – the trail on the west side of Carbon River is closed, so you must cross the river to the trail that runs parallel on the east side. This adds only ½ mile total and allows you to cross the amazing suspension bridge more often! The trail is completely snow free with no issues all the way. Carbon River Camp had no other campers Friday, but someone left a tent in Site #2 – if it was you, the Ranger, Kyle, was going to go get it, so give him a call. Nice camp but tent areas are small (some site support only one tent) and the nearest water source is Cataract Creek a little way down trail – bring a water hang bag if you have one.

Carbon River Camp has a toilet and bear poles, which are really rodent poles as a bear could knock them over with a sneeze. However, we saw only one very shy black bear and several NOT shy rodents, so the poles seem adequate. The chipmunks and mice do show up every meal like long-lost relatives hearing of a lottery win, so guard and hang your food! I turned my back for a second to find a very cute mouse rustling in my food bag.

Carbon River Camp toward Cataract and Spray Park – if you like Glacier Lilies, is this the trail for you!! They carpet the woods like I’ve never seen, along with numerous other wildflowers. There are a few downed trees/debris on the trail before Cataract Valley Camp, easily negotiable. A WCC crew was working this trail when we were there and had been for 9 days. The sections they have worked are stunning – textbook tread and drainage maintenance and improvements – thank you so much!!!! Cataract Camp was NOT melted out in 4/6 sites as of 7/22. One site that was not entirely snow had a substantial pool of standing water and was basically a marsh. The one dry site was in the very back against the scree field - #6 maybe? Pics of several sites on Flickr link below. Back on the trail toward Spray Park, solid snow starts shortly after Cataract Camp, so we turned back there.

Carbon River Bridge towards Mystic via glacier and Dick Creek – trail snow-free until about 1.3 miles past Dick Creek with no other issues except some mud/water on trail in a few spots. The views are spectacular of both the mountain and the glacier, as well as surrounding crags. Wildflowers, pika, and cool insects abound (mosquitoes not too bad yet, though) on this indescribably beautiful section of trail. Dick Creek is completely melted out and in good shape. Snow starts in earnest about 1.3 miles after that. We encountered some hikers coming down from staying at Mystic. They were camped on snow, but the lake was starting to melt out and they hiked without crampons, reporting it wasn’t bad. We went only a bit past the snow to catch some views from the ridge.

All in all, this is a fantastic option for this crazy late-melt year. There are several destinations completely snow-free (in addition to those described, day hikes could include Yellowstone Cliffs and soon to Spray Park and Mystic Lake), no avalanche danger, and very few visitors.

Link to full photos (which I’m posting as I can – keep checking back for more! I’ve got most of the described spots pictured at least some): http://www.flickr.com/[…]/

I was going to overnight at carbon camp but changed my mind to Ipsut after the bike ride in. I've been sick and still on meds energy level was super low. I set up camp in site #8 and day hiked to the glacier. Trail is in good shape to northern junction only 2 little spots of snow.
Trail crews have been working hard, bridges are all in. Weather was perfect! Once across the river it's about 60-70% snow free to suspension bridge.
I checked out carbon camp, still 3 feet of snow lingers. Hardly any flowers out. I saw about 10 goats up high in the hills, such a treat! Long day 13 miles but worth every step, had the whole ipsut camp to myself.
Here's a short video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87rp2k2hH4k

I could have been at work. I thought about going to work. But, the weather forecast said it'd be nice for the next two days, so I made the right choice and took too days of vacation to go backpacking. A couple of destinations presented themselves as options, each, coincidentally next to a volcano. In the end, my volcano of choice was the big one, Rainier.

Though my choice of destination was made the day-of, the genesis of my Tahomian expendition came a couple of weeks earlier. After seeing several trip reports lauding the virtues of Spray Park, I decided to head up there one weekend. Unfortunately, by the big day, Spray Park was listed as WTA's Hike of the Week. It also turned out to be a free-entrance weekend. The net effect of all this was that by the time I made it to the trailhead, there were cars lined up for at least a mile down the road. "Forget it," said I, "I shall go elsewhere." So, elsewhere (Paul Peak to Mowich River) I went. That's not really the point. The point is that in surveying other destinations, I took note of the fact that a neat little loop could be made by hiking from Mowich Lake to the Carbon River and them back up through Seattle and Spray Parks. A hiking trip is born.

Enough history, back to the story. I left home at about 9:00 and, mistakenly thinking that I could get an overnight permit at the Paul Peak pay area, made it to Paul Peak by 11:15. No permits there...go to the Carbon River Ranger Station, said the sign. So, there I went. My plan was to camp at Cataract Camp, about 1.5 miles and 1400' up from the Carbon River. But, to my chagrin, Cataract was already full up for the night, as was the lower Carbon River Camp, my 2nd choice. Dick Creek, a mile out of my way up the Carbon Glacier trail was open when I walked into the Ranger Station, but the lady in front of me in the Ranger Station queue snapped up the last spot there. Fortunately, however, she was a very nice gal and allowed me to join her "party" that night. Whew...I had a place to pitch my tent! My new campmate was doing a big loop up through Sunrise and other places. She was going to head through Spray Park first, and I was planning to head out via Ipsut Pass/Carbon River, so we exchanged see-ya-at-camp's and parted ways.

I returned to the Mowich Lake trailhead, parked, hoisted my pack, and, determined to save dessert for last, set off towards Ipsut Pass and the Carbon River at about 2:30. Ipsut Pass (5100') is a pretty interesting place. You climb very gently on the approach, but right at the passm the trail drops away quickly as you switchback down a very steep meadowy slope wedged between dramatic cliffs. It leaves and impression. There were a good number of wild flowers in the meadow, though it was pretty overgrown and very buggy. Down, down, down the trail went, eventually plunging into forest, and in a few miles out onto the Carbon River trail (2600').

From there it was a gentle climb up the Carbon River. Due to a washout, the river must be crossed about 1.5 miles up. There are footlogs in place, and it is actually a pretty neat crossing. Gentle climbing continued up to the famed Carbon River suspension bridge (3200'). According to my original plan, I was going to cross the bridge and head up to Cataract Camp, but since Dick Creek was now my destination, I stayed on the east side of the river and started up to Dick Creek. The camp is only a mile from the suspension bridge, but, oh yeah, also 1200' up. Fortunately views of the snout of the Carbon Glacier and Mount Rainier above open up and motivate weary legs up what would otherwise be a slog-and-a-half. I made it to camp by about 7:00, got set up and had dinner. There were some bugs, but not bad at all. Dick Creek Camp doesn't have any views of the mountains, but there's a great panoramic view about 0.1 miles down from camp, so after dinner, I hoofed it down there (encoutering my inward-bound campmate) and watched the alpineglow on the mountain. I returned to camp, chatted with my next door neighbor, and went to sleep. I was going to go check out Rainier under the moonlight, but I fell fast asleep and didn't wake up until 7:00 the next morning.

The mountain troika (morning, oatmeal, and hot chocolate) came, and soon camp was broken and I was headed back down to the suspension bridge. I made my best impression of Indiana Jones crossing the bridge, and then it was time to start climbing. I realized the night before that, thanks to my forced detour to Dick Creek that instead of only having about 1800' of elevation gain on Day 2, I would instead be faced with 3200' of gain. To keep my sanity, I mentally divided the climb into Carbon River to Cataract and Cataract to the divide between Seattle and Spray Parks. This worked well.

The climb up to Cataract was overgrown in spots and the area around Cataract camp was seriously buggy. Cataract camp is also in the woods, so no views. Between the bugs at the lack of views, the detour to Dick Creek seemed worth it. The climb continued. There were a few patches of huckleberry, some of which were ripe enough to eat (tart, but tasty). After about 3.2 miles of climbing, I broke out into Seattle Park. Seattle Park is a neat place. It lacks expansive views of The Mountain (particulary in the lower parts of the park), but it has a beautiful combination of streams cascading through lush alpine meadows, eventually giving way to higher, rockier terrian, all with great views of staggering peaks. Whilst climbung through the meadows, I saw a big ol' brown bear a ways elow. Half a mile later, I spotted a cousin of his grazing right next to the trail in front of me. I backed off and spent quite a bit of time talking to him (ok, talking AT him...he wasn't much of a conversationalist), while I waited for him to amble away. With Fozzie out of the way, I continued onward and upward. The meadows faded, the terrian became rockier, and views of Rainier (actually views in all directions) opened up the higher I went. There were a couple of short patches of icy snow toward the top, none more than 60' and all heavily cairned. Finally, I found myself at the divide (6400'). A quick sprint up the knoll and the climbing for the day was down. And the 360 degree views were tremendous. Here I ate lunch. It was 2:00 and I had been staving off hunger with some snacks, but it was worth it, because this was a great spot for drooping the pack, kicking back, and relaxing.

The descent through Spray Park was everything it was cracked up to be. The flowers are now just a smidge past their peak, but still glorious. The meadows, the flowers, the big, big views of the mountains...it would be impossible to make good time through here, you have to stop every three steps to be able to even start to take it all in. There were some bugs, but that was irrelevant. All I could think was, "what a great day to be alive!"

It is impossible to say how much time elapsed while I made my way through Spray Park. All I know is that eventually the trail dropped into forest and the dream ended. I stopped at Spray Falls and Eagle Cliffs on the way out, both were gorgeous, though they felt more grounded in reality than the dreamland above. There were plenty of bugs through here, but soon enough, I was back to Mowich Lake and the end of the journey.

That sure beat a Tuesday and Wednesday in the office...

 P.S. Spray Park is beautiful. Judging from the other trip reports out there, I didn't take any pictures that someone else hasn't already taken. Resixing photos is still a bit of a pain, so go look check out other folks' reports.