A flower update for Spray Park and some of the bootpaths that branch out. Our group of 9 Mountaineers were lucky enough to see a cinnamon-colored black bear foraging in the lush meadows (1:26-212 on the video). I think it was the same bear I saw last week.
In general, the flowers are very good right now in the subalpine meadows and alpine areas. There are a wealth of avalanche lilies throughout Spray Park, some fading to pinks and reds, some are fresh white. There are lots of other early flowers in the Park: the yellow Strickland's umbrella wort/tauschia, white marsh marigolds, pink and white heather, shooting stars, pink bog/alpine laurel, and more. There are areas of thick magenta paintbrush, Mt Rainier lousewort, and lupine; lots of these will be blooming in the coming weeks.
The bootpath towards Echo and Observation (yellow on this caltopo map https://caltopo.com/m/02D2) has some very good flowers. Many of the cliff paintbrush are fading from bright scarlet to lighter reds and oranges (see video). There are thick areas of magenta paintbrush, alpine asters (see video), bird's beak lousewort and others. If you want to see the best flowers in this area, you want to get there pretty quickly. We had lunch at .8 miles in on this trail and saw a skier coming down the slopes above and one skinning up.
The boothpath towards Knapsack Pass (blue on the caltopo map) has areas with very thick displays of magenta paintbrush, Rainier lousewort, pink and white mountain heather, and lupine. Other areas on this trail are just coming out. This trail will have great flowers in the weeks to come (and there are great viewpoints down into Mist Park).
We also did short sections of the boothpaths to Pleasant and the "skier's boothpath" (orange on the caltopo). Both of these had good flowers, mostly avalanche lilies,
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