The Road:
The road is passable for all cars but it is a long slog with washboard the majority of the way. If you are going on the weekend when it is busy it turns into a dust bowl which at times significantly reduced visibility so keep your headlights on.
The Hike:
This is one of my new favorite hikes in the Mount Rainier area. It literally has everything from beautiful forest, to waterfalls (Spray falls), to wildflower fields and unobstructed views of Mount Rainier. The first two miles to the falls is a gradual climb which went by quite quickly. We were warned about a bear being near spray falls by a couple kids but did not see it ourselves. The climb from spray falls to spray park is the steepest park of the trek but is short of a mile. Once you get to the wildflower fields you no longer feel the burning in your legs as it is beautiful. Avalanche Lillies are blooming right now in full force and it looks like others will follow shortly. Near the end of Spray park there are a number of small snowfields to cross which were easily passable. We made it to between Spray park and Seattle park then took the climbers path towards observation rock which was gorgeous. Unfortunately we stopped short of observation rock although we regretted this later (following a google image search). Overall we did about 10 miles not included the extra mile to get to our car from the trailhead. This is a great time of year to do this hike. Overall the trail was moderately busy but nothing like the more populated areas of Rainier.
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