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Trip Report

Spray Park — Saturday, Jul. 29, 2023

Mount Rainier Area > NW - Carbon River/Mowich
Tahoma in the clouds with the small mountain pond reflecting and full of tadpoles. Magical place.

The road to Mowich Lake is long and dusty. They have recently graded it and it is mostly pretty smooth. There is some washboarding on it in places, but there were all sorts of cars that made it. Halfway up the road I ended up getting in a caravan of about 20 cars. One person tried to pass multiple cars on the left hand side while visibility due to dust was very low. NOTE: Do not do that! It is extremely dangerous and a car has gone off the road very recently. That makes it super dangerous for everyone. 

I had to park about 2/3 of a mile away from the Mowich campground arriving at 8:45 am. It was very crowded with lots of cars. I was expecting the trail to be crowded as well, but almost everyone was going to Tolmie. I was by myself and didn't even see someone else for the first 1.5 miles or so. 

The viewpoint at Eagle cliff is amazing. Spray Falls was really tall and huge, but the view of it isn't the best. The switchbacks up after the falls were pretty brutal, but not that long. 

Spray Park itself was amazing, but some clouds had blown in between when I was at Eagle Cliff and when I got to the log footbridge that leads to the first meadow, so the views of the mountain were somewhat limited. I heard someone else say it was a below average wildflower year and I think I tend to agree, but it was still beautiful. Someone also said they had seen a bear earlier but I didn't see it. I wondered around for about a mile after the entrance area before turning around. I found a small pond with a beautiful reflection of the mountain which was full of hundreds of tadpoles. I wish I could have done more, but it will be good to come back. Bugs were virtually nonexistent. Saw several groups who were rucking skis up, which was pretty cool. 

8.21 miles 
1917 elevation gain 
A little more than 4 hours total time

Rosy Spirea
Lots of beargrass
The view of the mountain from eagle cliff
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