Spray Park — Monday, Jul. 12, 2021

A snow, flower, and bear report for Spray Park and 3 of the bootpaths that branch off of the trail. The Spray Park trail has about 10 snow fields totaling about 1/4 mile of snow. The bootpath that goes from the highpoint of Spray Park south towards Echo and Observation has one short (60 feet) snow patch. The bootoath that heads north towards Knapsack Pass has a few short snow fields over the first 2/5 mile, but it then turns into all snow. The bootpath to Mt. Pleasant has one small snow patch in the flat portion and a larger one at the beginning of the uphill. 

I got to spend 20 minutes watching a cinnamon-colored black bear forage in lower Spray Park (see the attached video). I wondered if it was one of the cubs I saw there last year. What a thrill and a pleasure. I love my zoom lens! 

The Spray Park area looks like it is is going to be lovely with lots of flowers over the next few weeks. There are a lot of blooms and variety right now, with a lot more to come. The first link is a video with flower highlights (0:00-2:37 Spray Park trail, 2:38-5:25 bootpath to Echo, 5:26-6:31 bootpath to Knapsack, 6:32-6:52 bootpath to Pleasant).   On the caltopo map (2nd link), the path to Echo is yellow, Knapsack is blue, and Pleasant is orange. 

There are a huge number of avalanche lilies in lower Spray Park. Other early flowers are out in large numbers: (yellow) Strickland's tauschia, (pink) bog/alpine laurel, pink and white heather, shooting stars, and white marsh marigolds. There are a lot of patches of magenta paintbrush, bird's beak and Rainier lousewort, and a few spots of lupine. 

The bootpath towards Echo and Observation has great flowers right now. There is lots of dwarf mountain lupine, cliff and magenta paintbrush, bird's beak and Rainier lousewort, alpine asters, partridgefoot, speedwell, and more. 

The bootpath towards Knapsack Pass is mostly recently melted, but at the start of it, there are some stunningly thick areas of heather, magenta paintbrush, Rainier lousewort, and lupine.

The bootpath towards Mt. Pleasant has really thick avalanche lilies. patches of paintbrush, and lots of flowers to come. 

The road is in great shape, the only times I had to go below the 30 MPH limit was around the tight turns. 

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://youtu.be/qXmjl8c8Lxw
• https://caltopo.com/m/02D2