My 13-year-old son, Isaac, and I planned a 6 night backpacking trip from Mowich Lake to White River, via Spray Park beginning August 22. We’ve had limited backpacking experience, but wanted to take on a substantial trip. We made our reservations back in March with the intent to stay at every campsite along the way (except Carbon River) so as to limit the daily hiking distance as much as possible. Luckily as our start date approached, the weather forecast was stellar with just a chance of rain on our first night at the Eagles Roost campsite. Day 1 (Monday) My wife drops Isaac and I off at the Mowich Lake trailhead (4900 ft) after a beautiful drive up to the mountain. Mowich Lake is in the NW corner of the park. We had a pleasant 2-mile hike into our first campsite at Eagles Roost (4900 ft). Beautiful weather. The trail was mostly through thick forest with scattered peeks of the mountain. We set up camp and then (sans our heavy packs) took a short 10-minute walk further down the trail to Spray Creek to get our water for the evening. Spray Creek is at the base of Spray Falls, and maybe a quarter mile downstream. Spray Falls is a 400’ waterfall. Words and photos (at least not mine) cannot do justice to the magic of this experience. We have our dinner and settle into the tent for the evening. We know it is supposed to rain pretty hard this night, but by mid-morning everything should clear up and nothing but sunny skies for the rest of our trip. Ultimately there was little rainfall, and we had our camp set up well before any did fall. Day 2 (Tuesday) Breakfast. Pack up and head on to the trail. The plan is to head up to Spray Park, go through a pass at the east end (6400 ft), cross a permanent snowfield, and then descend to our next campsite at Cataract Valley (4700 ft). It’s been a late melt on Rainier this year, so we have been told by the Rangers to expect a lot of snow, but the bootpack trail through the snow is supposed to be pretty clear, and there has been a lot of traffic through there. We begin our ascent through a thick forest via a series of killer switchbacks. We make it into Spray Park proper, an Alpine meadow of grasses and wild flowers surrounded by both jagged and rounded peaks. Progressing east we travel along a steady increase in elevation. When we hit the snowfield, the fog has rolled in and visibility is about 20-30 feet. The most bizarre thing happens – a man comes down from the snowfield dressed in running gear (t-shirt, shorts, and running shoes). He tells us we are on the path to Cataract Camp and that we should just follow the boot trail over the snow until we connect with the trail proper. He continues in the opposite direction back into Spray Park. We follow the bootpack through the fog and a series of snowfields and muddy trails until we reach an obviously groomed trail and the snow peters off. What we didn’t know at this time was that this was not the trail to Cataract Camp. Our map did not show any other trail in the area. We continued on. This trail went up, and leveled, up, and leveled, for a while. We ended up above the fog with Rainier dead ahead and blazing in the sunlight. We continued to follow this trail higher and higher until we ended up in a flat rocky field where the trail just kind of petered out. Beautiful and sunny where we were – clouds and fog below. To the south was a 20’ tall wall of snow about 100 feet in length. It wasn’t a glacier because we could see over the top as we were coming down into the area. Above that was the beautiful mountain looming overhead. To the left of the mountain was a pinnacle called Echo Rock (I learned this later), and to the right another called (Observation Rock) A broad valley fell down to the west and to the Spray Creek and Mowich Valley below. To the north was a snowfield that seemed to go on forever. Of course by this time (probably sooner really) I knew we had taken a wrong turn. We were physically exhausted and had about an hour of sunlight left. We knew exactly how to get back down, because the trail was clear, but we didn’t have enough time to get back to Eagles Roost, nor could we count on finding the right turn to Cataract Camp in the fog. So we called it. It was time to set up camp. This was a massive rock field with no vegetation. (I’ve since figured out exactly where we were and the elevation was about 6800 ft.). We scouted out a couple of small flat areas that could accommodate our tent. In one I noticed that there were prints in the dirt and then we realized they weren’t boot prints. They had toes and a footpad. They were bear prints. Great. We set up the tent in another one of the flat areas, and packed all of our food into a couple of stuff sacks. We decided not to cook anything and ate a dinner of Cliff Bars and dried fruit. We needed a place to put up our food. There was no place to hang it at all. The best we could do was to wedge the bags into the crack of a large boulder as high up as we could reach about 50 feet from our tent. We settled in for the night and hoped for the best. I really didn’t think any bears would bother us in our tent, but I seriously doubted we would have any food left in the morning. The night was wicked – no rain, but high winds with bursts that rattled our tent all night long. The entire tent was compressed from all sides and the top constantly, and it was loud! Isaac was definitely concerned that bears were outside. I told him that bears have no more interest in being out in this weather than we do. I slept a little but stayed vigilant (with my whistle, headlamp, and trekking pole-spear, ha!) – and yes I wish I had brought bear spray on the trip. Isaac was definitely shaken up by the experience, but he slept through most of the night. I was far more concerned that the wind was going to rip our tent apart than I was that we would have a run in with any bears. Day 3 (Wednesday) The morning came, and it was a bright and glorious morning. No clouds or fog in any direction. And our food was right where we left it. We christened our campsite as “Bear Paw Camp,” ate a few energy bars, packed up, and headed back in search of the trail to Cataract Valley. I’m going to shorten this narrative here. We made it back down to Spray Park, followed the trail guide meticulously, but just could not find the turn off to Cataract Valley. The sun was out, but there was a lot of snow covering the trail. It was very hot and I really started worrying about Isaac’s ability to continue in either direction. (Mine too, but his energy level was really starting to scare me). We hydrated ourselves really well and ate some more. But we came to the disappointing conclusion that our best alternative was to head back to the Eagles Roost Camp and end the trip the following day. It was a very disheartening hour or so. We made our way back to Spray Park and ran into a number of people along the way. As we made our way down, our spirits lifted significantly. We understood we had indeed been through a great adventure and had camped in a location that few people probably ever had – maybe a 13 year old never had. Sitting on a large rock in the middle of Spray Park eating lunch, our water bottles once again replenished, we were feeling grand. Two guys named Chuck and Ted came along who were out for a day hike. I asked if they could call my wife when they got in cell range that night and have her come to pick us up tomorrow. (The original plan was for her and the girls to camp out a couple of nights at White River where our planned hike was going to end on Sunday). We made our way back to Eagles Roost and set up camp, ate a massive dinner, and called it a night. Day 4 (Thursday) Breakfast. Pack up. A beautiful hike back to Mowich Lake. Arrived at 11-ish. My wife was there (Chuck and Ted came through!). I don’t think she ever looked more beautiful to me than at that moment. In the end we hiked approximately 10 miles round trip (+ numerous side trips and a fair amount of going in circles) with an elevation gain of nearly 2000’. This was probably the hike we should have planned from the beginning.... Great memories and we are looking forward to more backpacking in the future.

Perfect day for hike! Snow starts just as you enter Spray Park. Although the meadow is still covered with patches of snow, it is melting fast and no traction devices are needed. I hiked up through Spray Park to the base of Echo Rock and realized it was getting late so turned around at about 6,700' http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/1268493 Flowers are starting to make there way up through the snow and hopefully in a couple weeks the meadow will be mostly snow free. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4JoS_tVcfo

Great day hike. Partial snow at Mowich Lake, but no snow on the trail until the lower end of Spray Park. Our goal was Observation Rock and we followed the snow-covered trail up to the crest separating Spray Park from the Carbon drainage. Then up the shoulder, where we encountered a solo skier and elected to climb OR via the steeper north side. Not too bad. Beautiful views but the cloud layer covering Puget Sound started slowly but surely to drift up. We decided to descend the normally recommended route via the Echo-OR snow col, with a variation dropping into the snow basin rather than working around the semi-circular arc at the lip of the col. Anyhow, we descended snow fingers past Cateye Lake rather than re-tracing our steps, downward into the clouds, and met the "trail" near the lower part of Spray Park. Cool and overcast on the hike out. Saw a brown bear in lower Spray Park on the way in. Avalanche lilies and a few Indian Paintbrush up on the higher ridges but more snowbanks than flower show. No bugs. A few pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/koelle/

We camped at Mowich Lake the night before, and did this hike up through Spray Park in the morning. The Avalanche Lilies are in full bloom, but many other wildflowers seem to just be starting. The campground, which is essentially a modified parking lot (in a very beautiful location though, right next to Mowich Lake), only had three or four sites full on Friday night, but by Saturday had filled up. When we started the hike, the views just got better and better. At first, we were excited to see an early viewpoint of Mount Rainier. Soon after, we stopped at Spray Falls (a quick and worthy side-trip) and were very impressed with the waterfall. When we reached Spray Park we got incredible views of Mount Rainier as well as beautiful meadows full of blooming wildflowers. Crystal clear streams flow from the remains of the melting snow-pack, and Gray Jays and Varied Thrushes call from the trees. Some people descending past us said that they saw a bear cub as well. The view from the top of Spray Park is fantastic, surrounded by mountains and looking down on a beautiful valley full of waterfalls and streams. On the way back down, we got a welcome surprise when we heard and saw juvenile and adult Northern Spotted Owls! The weather was clear and warm all day, until fog started to roll in just as we were finishing the hike. We took our time, stopping at many viewpoints, and the hike took us around six hours to complete. There was some snow around the campground, but on the trail the snow didn't start until the the forest opened up into the meadows of Spray Park. There the snow was patchy, with increasingly large patches as we climbed higher into Spray Park. All of it was well packed and hike-able, but we were very glad to have trekking poles. This is a great time to do this hike and there were a lot of people on the trail, including many backpackers continuing on past Spray Park. The wildflowers were not fully blooming, and should be even more impressive in a few weeks. Head out to Mount Rainier and do this hike, you won't regret it!

This hike is a great shorter hike. I just went to the falls, not the park, so it was about 4 miles round trip. It has some climbs and some downhills, but overall not too challenging of a hike. The clouds were low and misty during the hike, so visibility was low, but it offered a mystical view of nature. There are several footbridges and waterfalls along the way which just made it spectacular. The trail is in great shape, there is a little snow, but it is not on the trails. Parked at Mowich campground. Great day trip.