Knapsack Pass, Spray Park

My friends and I found the trail head to Knapsack Pass just past the Ranger cabin on Mowich Lake. We hike up through forest which occasionally broke into open spaces of ponds and wildflowers. Everywhere along this stretch was within earshot of babbling streams and miniature waterfalls covered in moss. We eventually broke out into rocks and sun and the climbing seriously began up towards Knapsack Pass along piles of boulders, bonsai trees and green cliff beginning to stain autumn red.

Views from the top of the Pass were amazing with Mt Rainier peaking out on the right. We descended along a rocky path towards a small snowfield that we crossed to more rocks. Crossing another snowfield --this one with a little ice in old footsteps in the path -- we came to a rocky patch full of alpine lupines and miniature forests of twisted trees.

After relaxing here and listening to Lil Kim from my iphone we marched on to another snowfield. This snowfield was daunting and it appeared to be just above an avalanche shoot so we got off to the rocks as quickly as possible. There were no cairns at this point so it took some time to find the path again. We followed the patch up the side of a hill with amazing views of Mt Rainier, Mist Park and Spray Park.

We followed the trail down to Spray Park and eventually ran into the fork to the right which took us all the way back down through the forest to Mowich Lake.