Hiked this trail yesterday. The road to the trailhead is rocky and bumpy but doable in most vehicles. It was clear and Rainier was out when I arrived at around 11am, but the fog quickly rolled in, so there were no views when I reached the meadows. There was also a bear just off the trail in the meadow. Would definitely return to do this hike on a clear day.

I had this desire to preview the final undone 1.2 miles of the Spray Park Loop, and this 10 hour, 10 mile hike from Mowich Lake completed the task.  Next year I want to do the whole loop in one day.

It turned out to be a nice, clear, and decently warm enough day.  Most of the little ponds were dried up and most of the flowers were gone.  I came away with obligatory blue fingers.

I saw at least 10 people carrying their downhill ski gear to/from the Echo/Observation area.  I asked one gal how far she skied, and the answer was “about 200 feet”.  I’m sure it was fun anyway.

There were very minor snow crossings above 6000'.

Another great loop hike, after doing a Sunrise loop last week.

Stats

• Distance: 10-3/4 miles (2 miles due to parking)
• Duration: 6-1/4 hours
• Vertical: 2490 feet
• Weather: sunny, 60s to 70s, no wind, some smoke, bugs later in afternoon and near Spray Park (we have bites)
• Takeaway: BLUEBERRIES are out (we gorged), as is fall color; route-finding skills needed and GPS skills desirable; considerable scrambling down from Knapsack Pass (talus to large bounders); unique view of Spray Park and Rainier from trail; only one easily navigable snowfield crossing remains

Mowich Lake area was very busy, and we parked about one mile down the road. One thing you can say about this area is that there is plenty of overflow parking! Many folks are there to recreate on Mowich Lake, which was stunning in the bright sunshine (ala Emerald Cove at Lake Tahoe... I do need to come back with pack raft and hammocks and just chill). I did not mind parking a distance away, but I upon reaching the Ranger Station, where the "unmaintained" trail up to Knapsack Pass begins, I discovered I had forgotten my GPS (needed on this trail) and would need to go back for it! (not included in stats) At least the road was not that dusty after recent rains, so walking the road was much more pleasant than my last trip. My buddy waited at the Ranger Station and cleared out the Blueberries - sorry, Mr Ranger :)

At the Ranger Station, the beginning of the Knapsack Pass trail is to the left looking at the front door. No...you so not need to follow the visible trail up to the Ranger's outhouse as we did, depite the Ranger having given us the low down a mere half hour earlier (OK... I was frazzled from having to walk all the way back to the car). There is a sign indicating that the trail is "unmaintained" which roughly translates to "quiet and peaceful" for me. It did not disappoint. Up to the pass, there is no point where the trail is not obvious, and the trail is easily manageable, only with perhaps fewer switchbacks and a more aggressive incline than is typical. That is not true of the decent from the pass, especially given that recent rain has pretty much erased dustry footprints of other adventurers. I loaded my waypoints from Gaia and they nailed the correct trail for the descent from the pass to Spray Park.

There are a number of minor junctions on the trail (always clear which trail is the main trail) to bag various peaks surrounding the trail. Given that this was our first time on this route, we kept it simple. At Knapsack Pass itself, Rainier comes into view, and you reach what amounts to a 3-way junction. We headed straight, to descend into Knapsack basin, and eventually meet up with the Spray Park trail just before the find ascent to the high point on that trail, and the cross-over into Seattle Park.

The descent into Knapsack basin is challenging the first time, as I was not sure what to expect, and the "trail", such as is there is one, is not obvious. This is a mile of talus and boulders than one much navigate carefully. My GPS waypoints were more useful from a "general direction" point of view - this is wide open area of rock and tarns - stunning. There are cairns here and there, but it kind of like rock-on-rock, so not entirely obvious. I equated the route finding to a vision test where you try to spot blue dots outlining a number in a sea of green dots. Despite the rain, the trail is fairly obvious if you observe the terrain. Once past the extensive rock gardens below a rocky headwall running parallel to the trail, you eventually reach meadows again, a short snowfield, and then a meadow up-and-down route back to Spray Park. The trail becomes more and more prominant the closer you get to Spray Park.

The route has rockfall potential - you might consider a helmet. Certainly, poles are recommended. I prefer to use just one to keep one hand free. This worked just fine. There is no real exposure to speak of (my buddy might not feel the same way). I did the route clockwise which guarantees you stunning views the whole way. I could not imagine why one would do counterclockwise with your back to the mountain. The views above Spray Park from the descent trail are spectacular, but really the varying terrain and views make this loop a winner on all fronts.

We merged onto the "Spray Park Freeway" for our return to Mowich. We saw few people the whole day, and the return was no different. There are more flowers than expected throughout the entire route, as well as fall color that is increasing week by week. It is a nice combination. And of course... it is BLUEBERRY season!

I hiked a loop today starting on the spray park trail then veering off to the knapsack pass trail and taking that up and over knapsack pass and then back down to Mowich lake where I started.  I read a number of accounts of this loop online that gave me some worry about certain aspects, but after hiking this trail, I would say most of the issues that others have written are a bit overblown, but there were a few aspects NOT mentioned in other reports that to me were pretty glaring omissions.  Ready on for more details...

Road/Access

I read a wide variety of reports on the condition of the Mowich Lake Road.  I would say the road is easily passable by just about all vehicles as long as you're careful when driving.  Admittedly I was in a 4x4 pickup, but there were very few potholes and all of them were easily avoidable.  The road is extremely washboarded though, and that may be a bit jarring for some vehicles.  With that said, there was nothing in the road that would have prevented any vehicle from making it to the end.

Parking/Trailhead

I got to the parking area around 8:00am and was lucky enough to find a space in the regular parking area.  With that said, I would say the lot was already 95% parked up and there were some vehicles parked along the road leading to the parking area.  When I left to go home, there were cars stacked up along the road for close to a half mile back from the parking lot.  Long story short, get there early if you don't want to add some extra distance to your hike.  I did not use the trailhead restrooms in the campground but they were open.

On The Trail

The trail from the trailhead all the way up to Spray park was in good shape.  The climb from the spray falls turnoff up to the park was an early leg burner for me, but little did I know this would probably be one of the easier climbs on the route.  Spray park was very picturesque, but the wildflowers unfortunately are well past their prime.  With that said the views of Rainier were great and visibility to the north was great with views all the way to the north cascades.

I initially had planned to take the turnoff up to the saddle between Mt. Pleasant and Hessong rock and then go up and over Pleasant to the knapsack pass trail, but after scoping the trail up to that saddle I decided to take the longer but less steep route via the direct knapsack pass trail turnoff.  I initially overshot the turnoff for the this route but was able to backtrack and find it pretty easily.  From there I took that trail northwest and this was honestly some of my favorite trail that I've hiked in MRNP.  You essentially hike right along the edge of the Spray park plateau with big views to the north/northeast over mist park.  I read some reports that the trail is "faint" along here but the trail is well defined single track and very easy to follow.

Eventually the trail takes you up and over the shoulder of Mt. Pleasant which is a short but steep climb.  The trail is pretty close to straight up here, although there are a few switchbacks towards the top.  The view from the top of this shoulder over the basin below knapsack pass is worth the exertion, although the steepness of this climb is a precursor to the rest of the loop.  From the shoulder, you then contour around the basin initially along good trail but eventually fading into granite slabs and boulders.  This is the portion of the trail that gets a lot of flack online, but I didn't find it too bad.  I was able to spot a few cairns that helped me along the way, but the route finding wasn't too difficult.  There is a good chunk of boulder hopping though.  I also ended up crossing two different snow fields on established boot paths.  In general, aim for the path of least resistance and also try to stay high.  Eventually you'll want to look for a nice flat rock with a cairn built on it towards the left side of the base of the pass.  This serves as a good rest spot before the climb over the pass and is also the start of the path/trail over the pass.

The climb over knapsack pass looks improbable from afar, but there is a pretty established trail starts with a faint but well trodden path through talus and rocks, but eventually transitions to firm dirt towards the top and is easy to follow.  This climb is also steep, but is on par with the climb up to the shoulder of Pleasant so if you find that climb ok, you'll be fine on the pass.  At the top of the pass, I was definitely feeling the burn, but the views over mist park and back to Rainier are great.  From the top, you can see Mowich Lake and the end seems to be in sight!  But that's where things get interesting...

There is much written online about the state of the Knapsack pass trail coming out of Mowich lake (i.e the "trail is not maintained beyond this point" sign, etc.).  Well the "unmaintained" state is very much the case with this portion of the trail. First of all, this trail is STEEP.  Switchbacks are few and far between and even descending this trail, I had to use my hands to help get down some 2-3' drops in the trail that have been caused by erosion.  In addition, there are a handful of downed trees over the trail as well as some loose rock sections that would have been sketchy without poles for support.  All of this in a section that either ascends or descends (depending on your direction) 1400' in a little over a mile.  Honestly, this hike was great and would have been one of my favorite in the park, but the descent down from the pass was BRUTAL and made for a tough end to what was otherwise a great alpine adventure.

Bugs/Weather/Misc.
I only ran into bugs in lower down in spray park when I stopped for a snack break.  They weren't bad but I probably acquired a few bites.  Once I got higher in elevation they disappeared, and I didn't experience any the rest of the way (including by Mowich lake).  Weather was great today although almost a little warm in the sun.  There were plenty of opportunities to filter water along this route.

Final Thoughts

I actually saw quite a few parties on various parts of this loop so although it's not identified on many maps, it's definitely one that's caught the attention of many hikers out there.  I speculate that the reason the knapsack pass trail stays "unmaintained" is that to "maintain" it would require lots of re-routing and erosion control, to the point where it would almost be akin to cutting a new trail altogether.  With that said, this is a solid adventure in the mountains and offers a lot of scenic value for a ~6 mile loop.  

Oh boy, road is passable. But prepare for 14 miles of the washboardiest washboard road of all time..

Weather was perfect. Parking lot was full by 7am, and cars were parked down thre road almost a full mile! Also, the park ranger was there, and he ticketed everyone who didn't have a pass, and everyone who was illegally parked. And there were a lot.

Great trail with a mix of down and uphill, nice change from a long uphill slog. it is mostly in the forest, tons of ripe huckleberries and blueberries. Once you start getting up into the meadows with views about 3 miles in, you can pretty much go as far as you feel like then turn around.

The offshoot to the falls was worth it. Though, the good view is across the stream and that crossing is seriously sketchy. All the rocks are very slippery.

Views of Rainier were awesome. Saw one black bear eating berries un thre meadow right off the trail, it couldn't have cared less about the hikers.