5 days and 4 nights incorporating sections of the Wonderland Trail, Spray Park Trail, and daytripping to Skyscraper Pass. Joined by Mom and Dad (average age: 71) and Debbie and John. Fantastic trip! Day 1: Mowich Lake to Eunice Lake to Ipsut Pass to Carbon River camp - started in mist, stayed in mist all day. A few bugs at Eunice lake. Steep, moist, and brushy avalanche chute from Ipsut Pass down to the Carbon River rainforest, then better tread to Ipsut Camp. From there easy uphill walking to Carbon River Camp. That trail is in good condition. Carbon River camp is very strange. The designers get points for ingenuity if not aesthetics. It's dank and moist. Day 2: Carbon River camp to Mystic. Another day of misty weather obscured most views of the mountain, but we did catch a couple of shots of Carbon glacier with the mountain in the background. There's a big slide in the first mile to Dick's Creek, with NPS workers doing some intermittent blasting to clear the last of the boulders. Rubbly and steep in this area. Steep all the way to Moraine Park. Quite buggy in the park, and worse up to the little saddle. Great flower show in the park right now - mostly lupine but many others as well. Down good trail to Mystic lake, then down further to the camp. Some bugs at Mystic camp. Day 3: Daytrip from Mystic to Skyscraper Pass. Another misty and eventually rainy day obscured any big views, but the pass is beautiful nonetheless. The Wonderland trail from Mystic to the Pass is in terrific condition, well-graded and snow-free the whole way. Very few bugs on this section of the trail. Day 4: Mystic back to Cataract Valley Camp. Our first clear and warm day. We got an early start - a good thing, as the descent from Moraine Park and especially from Dick's Creek Camp is very exposed and hot. The climb from Carbon River camp up to Cataract Valley Camp is humid, buggy, and a bit overgrown, not to mention steep - best not to do this late on a hot day. Cataract Camp was by far the prettiest camp we stayed at - and we had it all to ourselves, sort of odd for a beautiful August day. Just a few bugs here. Day 5: Cataract Valley through Seattle Park to Spray Park, down to Mowich Lake. A warm day, very buggy especially in the flower gardens; and lots of flies on the descent. Cross some long snowfields just near the 6400 foot saddle, but these are very safe/passable. The flowers on either side here are very spectacular, just tons of lupine and paintbrush, a few avalanche lilies leftover, many more coming on. Lots of photographers out and about. The mountain was big and brilliant in the east. The trail down from the park to the turnoff to Spray Falls is quite rutted and very steep with rivers of water on the trail in spots. From Spray Falls to Mowich Lake the trail is in much better condition. All in all a beautiful classic backpack, not too hard, a great day trip to Skyscraper Pass. Bugs not at all bad considering the late meltout and all the reports from last week. If I did this again I'd stay at Ipsut or Dick's Creek the first night; Carbon River camp is not for me. Granite Creek camp looked pretty. Cataract Valley is a very nice spot and since it's not on the Wonderland trail, you may have it all to yourself. There were some scattered thimbleberries and wild raspberries on the trail, but most of them are not ripe and of course the huckleberries are still green.

Got to the trailhead at 2pm on a Friday and was pleased not to have to park on the road. We only made it to Eunice Lake. Bugs in the forest were annoying but tolerable, but once we got to the lake, they swarmed. As others have noted, bug spray seemed to have no effect. We stayed only for a few minutes. There are still some wildflowers to be seen, but they have mostly faded by now. I'd recommend waiting a couple weeks before attempting this hike. Or, just hang out by Mowich Lake. Bugs were not a problem there, and there are some pretty patches of lupine that are still in full bloom.

Trail is in excellent condition, with some wildflowers. But the bugs are out in full force. Insect repellent has no effect and the constant presence of mosquitoes and gnats detracts from the hike.

Hiked to Eunice Lake with 5 and 7 year old daughters. Trail is in great shape and wild flowers are blooming at the lake. It would have been a wonderful place to spend the afternoon were it not for the mosquitoes which numerous and hungry. Luckily, I brought mosquito head nets for the kids which made things tolerable for them. I think we could have sold a whole case of head nets judging from the number of hikers who commented on them! We did not continue to the lookout, I think that would have been too much for the kids.

The kids sat in their backpack through parts of the hike. If you are a new hiker and its not a clear day, don't bother going up to Tolmie Peak with little ones. Our 4 yr olds were exhausted and to not see Mt. Rainier and to be eaten alive by the bugs was too much. We completely sprayed ourselves but we are home with big welts all over. Also the squirrels at the top are super eager for scraps and one jumped onto my lap. Scared my kids to death!