Departed via Spray Park trail from Mowich Lake. Stopped briefly at the Eagle Cliff viewpoint which is a spectacular view of Mt Rainier. Bypassed Spray Falls and made good time to Spray Park. A spur trail to the left goes up to the saddle between Hessong Rock & Mt Pleasant. It is steep but easy to follow & not too long. At the saddle even better views of Mt Rainier, Spray Park, Echo & Observation Rocks, & also other area peaks including Olympics in distance. I went left on a distinct climbers path toward Hessong Rock. I stayed w/ the path, crossed one small non-exposed snowfield (I could have gone down & around) & continued around the northern shoulder of Hessong. It appears that a route might be to go up next to a talus slope & gain the ridge & then to west to the summit. But I avoided this urge and the path took me around to the western ridge where I was able to follow it all the way to the top. One tree on path that takes some effort to climb over. Views even better on summit. Also noted Glacier Peak thru some other peaks. After a break I returned the same way even though there was a path going east from the summit. I returned to the saddle & followed a path toward Mt Pleasant. I followed it around some false summits & around the south shoulder of Pleasant. In about 20 minutes after being on the Hessong summit I was on the summit of Mt Pleasant. This summit is more rocky & I did not linger as long. I did not find a summit register at either summit. The last trip report from this hike/climb I found on this site was from 2006 from happy hiker.

http://www.wta.org/[…]/tripreport-2006082003

The distances on that trip report are good & I would generally agree w/ happy hikers route w/ the exception, I would avoid the urge to go up a chute to save time. Just follow the paths all the way up (since they're there, use them!) I don't know how many peaks I've gone up where there aren't paths or obvious routes to follow.

The only difficulty I had was going east from Mt Pleasant. I intended to connect w/ the unmaintained trail from Knapsack Pass back to Mowich Lake. I stayed up on the ridge as much as possible but had to do some rock scrambling as well as bushwhacking as there was no obvious path for much of the ridge hike. I was glad to see the Knapsack Pass trail below and connected with it a bit below Knapsack Pass. This section of trail is muddy in many places & easy to slip. Back into the woods I think I scared a lady half to death judging by the loudness of her scream. The 3-lady party told me they hadn't seen anybody all day on their hike to Knapsack Pass and wondered where I had come from. When I told them, they were impressed and wondered if I encountered much snow. I told them I hadn't and they said they intended to go down from Knapsack Pass to Spray Park but decided against it due to steep snowfields. Only wildlife I saw, a few frogs in Spray Park. Most wildflowers past their peak, only a few blue/huckleberries. No fall colors yet. The Spray Park trail is a great route to access Hessong Rock & Mt Pleasant but I might recommend returning the same way if you don't want to do a little route finding. Of course, it's always nice to be able to do a loop trip. I had done Fay Peak previously; I've noticed this included as a 3-peak trip in some guidebooks.

PS - A trail runner who passed me near the Spray Park trailhead dropped a plastic bag holding a bagel w/ cream cheese. I never caught up or ran into him again to return it but talked w/ another female hiker near Spray Falls who confirmed it was his. If that person reads this, It was yummy:) Thanks!

I saw the mountain driving up the road and for a second as I arrived at Spray Park and then behind the clouds it went. The fog rolled in quickly. There are lots of berries along the trail ripe. It felt like fall arrived today, I had 3 layers on at one point and wished for one more. I headed up above spray park until visability got real bad and then i turned around. Today was all about the flowers with dew and frost and the misty clouds. Oh, and I saw a bear on the hillside a great distance away, 1 marmot who was wet. The smells were intoxicating of fresh rain, berries, and just clean mounatin bliss! Good times on the trails once again.

Spray Park has a bit of everything-- mountain streams, colorful wildflowers, a waterfall, mountain views, and...lots of mosquitoes. The trail was well-kept, but muddy in a few areas where the streams went onto the trail.

Be sure to have your DEET along or you'll be sorry once you get to the alpine meadows at the top! The marshy meadows are ideal breeding grounds for insects.

This hike is known as one of the more popular hikes, and with good reason. The first half of the trail is easy ups and downs and then a switchback climb into Spray Park and all the vistas therein. We were visited by a group of Camp Robbers just past the trailhead that were obviously used to people. They had no problem taking a crumb or two out of your open hand if you're still enough. I know you aren't supposed to feed the wildlife, but I can't be the first one to give these guys a (small) handout... The views of the mountain aren't numerous, but they are still awe inspiring. We turned around after hiking through to the other side of the park, before the pass to Echo cliffs. The bugs were out in force so, remember, bring bug spray.