More difficult than I remember it being 12 years ago.

The Knapsack Pass route turns the Spray park trail into an interesting loop. Beautiful scenery around Knapsack and few people.

Start at the Mowich Campground and head north along the well marked trail that hugs the east shore of Mowich Lake. At .1mi and just past the Ranger's Cabin is a well worn path that leads to Knapsack pass. The sometime eroded trail gains 1300ft in 1mi. Descending on the east side of the pass is initially easy to follow then after crossing a small snow field it enters a boulder field with occasional cairns. Cross another snow field and enter a nice meadow with a few tarns. The trail crosses a 3rd snow field then slowly becomes a defined trail again as it crosses the east shoulder of Mt Pleasant and then drops down to the Spray Park trail. It intersects the spray park trail about 1/2 mi from it's high point. Check out Spray falls and Eagles Nest view on the way back. Today was sunny and warm but unfortunately the haze from fires made views of Rainier very washed out.

We left Tacoma with our wipers on with hope the weather would be better at The Mountain. It wasn't until we were past the Paul Peak trail head and almost to Mowich Lake that we rose above the marine layer and into the blue skies and sunshine.
The trail is in great shape and easy to follow. The flowers are past their prime but there are still some pretty ones. The falls colors are coming on strong.
We spotted a bear up on the hill below and right of Hessong rock. It was fun to watch it wandering all over the hillside looking for food.

We kept going through Spray Park past the "Top elev 6400" rock, across a snow field to two big cairns. Here the trail goes steeply downhill and to Seattle Park. We wanted to go down there but knew there wasn't time to go that far and get back to the car before dark. We so envied those that were spending the night. We'll be back!

Are you ever so delighted by an experience that you almost feel like you are getting away with something? That's what my September 20, 2012 overnight into Spray Park with my friend Jeff felt like: a few lingering wildflowers and blueberries, perfect sunny weather, soul-inspiring stargazing, jaw-dropping views from the flank of Rainier, early fall colors, solitude, and a peaceful bear, and all just two days before the official start of fall.

We weren't sure if we'd be able to camp in Spray Park (only two parties are issued cross-country permits for that area, and it took some sweet-talking of the ranger to even be issued one of them), but we got lucky, and I believe we had the entire area to ourselves on Thursday night. We got a late start up the trail at 2:30PM, and only encountered a few day-hikers and one fellow headed to Eagle's Roost camp. By sunset, Spray Park was all ours, and we didn't see or hear another person until around 10:30 the next morning. Stargazing from the meadows was epic, as there were clear skies and no moon (although wildfires in the Cascades and the lengthy high pressure system we've been having in the region made for a bit of haze.)

The next morning, a bear joined us for our yoga/meditation hour, and hung out at a respectful distance. I first spotted him between my legs from Downward Dog pose (!) maybe 300 yards up the hillside towards the ridge between Hessong Rock and Mt. Pleasant. He eventually meandered to within 40 yards of our camp, but never acted threatening, although he clearly knew we were there. We watched him for at least an hour before he eventually wondered out of site to our west (after first checking out our camp kitchen, where we had wisely cooked our delicious Salmon dinner the night prior quite a safe distance from camp, though nothing of ours remained there at that point.) I was glad we had carried in a bear canister (borrowed for free from the ranger station at Carbon River), as there are no good trees for hanging food at that altitude, and salmon and veggie-scented trash in a tree would probably have been all too inviting.

Friday afternoon we hiked straight up the little trail from Spray Park to the ridge between Hessong Rock and Mt. Pleasant, and followed the trail along the ridge to the top of Mt. Pleasant. Fantastic views of Fay Peak, Knapsack Pass, Mist Park, and Seattle Park awaited (stirring up schemes for a multi-night trip in the region during wildflower season.) To the west, low overcast at around 4500 feet obscured Mowich Lake and everything westward (reinforcing our giddy feeling of getting away with something, since we were in 70 degree sunshine, knowing that everyone at home was having a gray Seattle day.) From Mt. Pleasant, we followed the ridge between Seattle Park and Spray Park, where we serendipitously ran into our friend Sheri (who had hiked up through Knapsack Pass earlier that day.) We then followed the ridge trail further to where it joined the main Spray Park trail, and back down to pack up our camp and head back for the trailhead.

One last break for a small dinner at the viewpoint just below Eagle's Roost gave us one last sweet surprise. Right around Eagle's Roost we began descending through fog, and when we first arrived at the viewpoint, Mt. Rainier was completely obscured in clouds. But within just a couple of minutes, it completely cleared, and we drank in a pink and gray dusky mountain landscape with our last trail meal, the icing on the cake of an entirely perfect weekend.

By the time we reached the parking lot, at around 8PM, it was dark, and we needed headlamps for the last 3/4 mile or so. We passed several groups (including one very large group headed for Eagle's Roost) who were on their way in, and the campground at the trailhead and the parking lot were both packed with friday night visitors, presumably staging for an early start for their saturday morning hikes. We were even more grateful that we'd hiked thursday/friday, as we realized just how popular Spray Park is, and just how lucky we were to have it all to ourselves.

Note: After the creek right before the entrance to Spray Park, we found no running water. The only water sources we found were a few stagnant ponds (most of the creek beds and ponds were dry.) We were very glad to have a good water filter rather than just tablets or boiling for purification. We would have filled up with drinking water at the creek if we'd realized this. Also, the mosquitoes were pesky around dusk, but otherwise not much of an issue at all.