Spray Park Loop — Tuesday, Sep. 3, 2019

My cousins from PA came to visit for the first time, so naturally we had to get them out to Rainier. We left seattle around 5:30am on Labor Day and drove to the Carbon River ranger station. After securing our permits for the next few nights, we headed over to Mowich Lake. The parking lot was already packed when we arrived at about 8am. We decided to do a quick hike up to Tolmie Peak lookout before we embarked on our backpacking journey. The view from the top was incredible! We’re definitely glad we got to squeeze it in.

After we returned to our car and loaded up our packs, we started on the trail to Ipsut Creek, our camp for night one. The trail starts out with a steep downhill into Ipsut Valley. After passing people climbing up on their way out, we were glad we decided to do the loop clockwise. Climbing up those steep switchbacks on the way out at the very end of our trip would have been killer. The Ipsut Creek camp was way more established than I was expecting; it even had two indoor pit toilets with toilet paper provided ;) we spent the night with a momma deer and her fawn grazing around us, and woke up bright and early to start our next day.

Day two was HARD. This is the day we realized just how hard this loop actually was, but my cousins kept up with us! (Super proud of them, as this was their first ever backpacking trip). After lots of up and down all day, we made it to Cataract Valley Camp. We found a site nestled in right by a pika nest, and they certainly were chatty little guys! This day was a cold and foggy one, so much so that I ended up spending most of the afternoon/ evening lying around in my sleeping bag to stay warm. We definitely found ourselves wishing we could make a campfire. We made dinner and went straight to bed, hoping to get up early enough to make it to Spray Park tomorrow before the afternoon clouds roll in.

Day Three...was also another hard day of climbing, but the view we got when we got to the park made it all worth it. Incredible views of Rainier and alpine meadows invite you in and beckon you to stay. We were also lucky to FINALLY see some black beats in the wild. So cool! After we left Spray park, the trail was basically downhill the rest of the way. I won’t lie, we were relieved when it was all over, but we felt so accomplished. Overall, we ended up doing about 30 miles in 3 days. A STELLAR trip!
Happy Hiking! :)