Spray Park — Saturday, Aug. 13, 2011

Mount Rainier Area > NW - Carbon River/Mowich

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!