Escaping the crowds of the eastern side, the Spray Park loop is always a great option for the quieter northwest corner.
We started on Saturday, and parked up the road past the Tolmie trailhead, joining the long line of cars parked on the shoulder. Mowich Camp was busy with both frontcountry and backcountry campers, and we joined the dayhikers up the Spray Park trail.
Spray Park
Spray Falls was as splashy as I remember, and we booked it up the steps to the Spray Park plateau. Flowers were largely gone, but some paintbrush, a handful of glacier lily, and emerging bog gentian lined the trail. Pasqueflower brushes haven't fully erupted yet, but the first opening into the Spray Park meadows usually features a field of them in September.
From the top of Spray Park, we continued up to Flett Glacier, where a group of eight folks were camped on a cross-country, practicing glacial rescue techniques. A couple ptarmigan made their soft cooing sounds on the aptly named Ptarmigan Ridge.
Saturday was overcast in a blanket gray, and you could only occasionally make out Rainier amidst the loud wind gusts. Sunday morning cleared into an incredible bluebird day, with distant visibility. We continued up Flett, zigzagging past the icy patches on the glacier. There are some bootpath options (which help if you have a gps track to follow), but we curved along the ridge and up the snow to the scree between Echo and Observation Rock. Make sure you have sunglasses and chapstick!
We opted for a boulder climb going up, and snow coming down, but aside from occasional sliding gravel, the approach isn't bad. We were joined by two groups going up to Observation, and everyone had helmets, but we experienced no rockfall. The climb up Observation is just light scrambling.
Coming back down, we briefly hopped back onto the Spray Park trail before turning towards Mt Pleasant. The westside sunsets are epic, with their gradient from orange, to crimson, to purple, and we shared the view with 14 (!!) mountain goat on an adjacent ridge, hidden from view by those on the trail below.
Knapsack Pass / First Mother Mtn
Climbing over the ridge towards Knapsack, the trail loses itself over the large boulder fields. There are a couple ponds here, and we filtered some water while briefly laying on a snow patch for some cooling respite.
There are some well-intentioned but misleading cairns left by multiple parties, directing you nowhere in particular. As long as you can make out the trail going up each ridge, you can generally find your way across the boulder scrambles as you wish.
We were passed by five women coming up who scrambled over the field, and without them pointing out the trail to Knapsack, we probably would've taken a while to identify where to go. The slope up was slippery, with sand and gravel challenging our traction given our overnight packs. Use your poles and go slow! We later saw a trail runner who tried to make it to Spray Park, that later turned around after losing the trail.
At the top, a junction leads to the top of First Mother Mountain to the right, with Mowich Lake appearing below. Loose switchbacks make your way down, and we paused for a family of marmots that occupied the trail. You eventually reach a small creek, beautifully lined with arnica, daisy, and penstemon. There is a small shaded waterfall ringed by wildflowers that provides a restful break further down.
We blew past the spur towards Fay Peak, as the trail starts to widen and become recognizable with drainages and switchbacks. This was a maintained trail back in the day, but is now typically used by folks at Mowich wandering along the shore further than realized. If you can't make the whole Spray Park / Mother Mountain loop via Carbon River (and can do basic wayfinding), this loop via Knapsack can be a packed dayhike or overnighter.
We intended to add Tolmie to cap the hike, but scorched from the strong UV rays (even with hats/sleeves/bandanas!), we opted for an early return home.
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