The pros: What a stunning hike! Take all detours, including the Eagles Lookout and Spray Falls. The meadows and view of the mountain were unbelievable, and the wildflowers blanketed everything with color. Well maintained trail, and though understandably crowded, everyone was delightful. 

The cons: BUGS. I actually saw one woman running down the trail screaming about bugs and waving her arms to swat them away. Almost everyone had headnets or full net suits. Bug spray seemed ineffective. If you take on this hike, hike quickly and don't stop. And accept that you will get at least a dozen bites. 

Did an early morning hike up the Spray Park trail for sunrise. 

The road: There is now a stop light for the one way bridge. Worst case is a 5 minute wait. 

If you have previously driven the road at the end of the season, you will be delighted and think the road is in great shape.  If you haven’t driven Mowich Lk Rd before, you may think it is rough, with a lot of washboards.  For either, you can plan about 40 minutes heading up after the Carbon River Rd junction and 30 minutes down.

The trail is in typical melt mode.  Some water on the trail in spots. Some spots with deep shoe sucking mud.  A couple of easy snow fields to cross. 95% of the trail is in great shape.

Bugs were an annoyance. Typically not seen on my early morning hikes.  May have been the warmer temps.

If you decide to go down to see Spray Falls, know that the flow is so heavy, you have to walk up a tributary (aka soaked feet) to see them.

I stopped at 6160 ft of elevation. About a quarter mile from the junction with the Seattle Park spur trail.  All I saw was snow ahead of me.  I didn't feel like pushing it. I called it at this point and enjoyed the sunrise.

Wild flowers are blooming and pretty spectacular even now with much more to come. The usual areas are carpeted with lilies. Beargrass, red and magenta paintbrush, mountain heather, lupine  and Jeffrey’s Shooting Star to mention a few.

The old spur trail up to Spray Park proper is logged off.  I honored it and did not explore. More than enough to see without having to add that portion of the trail.

Didn't see anyone until I was almost back to the TH. Saw 3 groups of WT'ers heading out for the day just as I was about to climb the stairs back to the CG.

We backpacked a couple miles from Mowich Lake to Eagle’s Roost camp. Set up camp and then day hiked to Spray Park. It is snow free until you get about 3 miles in from Mowich Lake and then there are patches of snow - we didn’t go too much further. More snow heading towards Seattle Park. The wildflowers are starting to pop out and the bugs are not too bad yet. It’s totally worth the side trip to Spray Falls only a quarter of a mile or so off the main trail. Lots of water at the falls. Stunning views!!

Day # 2

I entered the early entry lottery back in March, 2022 and ended up with pretty much first pick of an itinerary. Pretty darn lucky.

Taking the last week of July for 9 days with a route heading counter clockwise, we started at White River so we would only have to drop one cache at Mowich the day before and then have my husband meet us at Longmire for the other cache.

The reports from WTA, the NPS, and rangers at all stations I visited the week prior made a huge difference in whether we changed our itinerary the day before. 

HAZARDS *** More details will follow in specific reports for each section but in general we were aware of the following areas prior to leaving for the 9 day circuit.

Mowich Rivers-At the time we started the Mowich River both north and south had no footbridge. The north would have to be navigated by bushwhacking and finding an alternate way using downed timber across the river. The south would need to be forded. We planned to get our feet wet.

Snow- With the late spring snow, we took our micro spikes and expected to get wet. I wore my trail runners most of the time wet and went through several pair of socks.

Heat- What we never expected was the heat in the 80's-90's that started the first day of our trip.

Bugs- My friends were bit up!

Section Details: Leaving Mystic Lake in the early morning was a breathtaking mirror of mountains not void of biting bugs. 

We headed up again to be met with the Winthrop and Carbon glaciers to our left. There were a few lingering snow fields leaving the meadow and as the Carbon Glacier began to appear so did the grinding heat. 

Resting often and filtering cold water as often as we could, the trail turned to snow fields heading up Seattle Park. 

Opting for micro spikes in order to make our work a bit easier we eventually crested and made our way to Spray Park later in the day.

Arriving at Mowich a bit late at camp that evening, we fell asleep with a flapping tent most the night that kept the bugs at bay.

Garmin

13.38 miles (+4152' -4855')

Wonderful day for a trip in Mount Rainier National Park. Today we hiked the Knapsack Pass-Spray Park loop with a side trip to First Mother Mountain.

The gravel road to Mowich Lake was in good condition, a bit bumpy the last couple miles. Easy to see why people camp here. Elevated tent pads, bear lockers, and a clean & well ventilated outhouse. Plenty of parking and we hit the trail at 8:30am.

Took the unmaintained trail to Knapsack Pass. It was steep, rooty & rocky, requiring route finding and navigating due to its rugged tread and lingering snow. We popped out of the forest and saw the pass above us. The route followed beautiful waterfalls, blooming heather and wildflowers. The whole experience brought joy to us and we loved it.

At the pass we took the climber's trail to First Mother Mountain. There are 3 viewpoints: the ridge, a spire half-way to the summit, and the summit itself. We went to the spire as the summit route had lingering snow. Did not feel comfortable scrambling it with trail runners. The view was gorgeous.

Descending the pass was a bit tricky. First a large block of convex snow, too steep to travel on without an axe. We bypassed it by bushwhacking below it. Then a section of talus/scree and finally the snow fields. We used spikes and poles to traverse lower, then glissaded a steep section to the bottom. Would have liked boots and an ice axe, but we made do with what we had. Also could tell a bear had taken this route 1 or 2 days earlier. Every now and then we saw 2-3in claw marks in the snowy paw prints. Pretty cool and a bit scary!

The snowy basin had wide open views, quiet solitude and little sign of recent travel. We took the Spray Park trail back to Mowich Lake. Unfortunately, many of the meadows in Spray Park are still snow covered. Only early wildflowers due to snowpack and our mild summer. Wait a couple more weeks for the wildflowers.