43 degrees at the parking lot at 8:20am, about 1/4 full. Went up to top of Mt. Pleasant - saw two pikas carrying plant material (one near the summit and one early on in the trail at the scree slope) and a bear near the tarn on the way back down from Mt. Pleasant.
Ran into a ranger who noted it may snow next week at 6500 feet. He said the road will likely close around Oct 14th (of course always check weather and road conditions before heading out! just offering this as an estimate). Most of the hike was socked in- but great fall colors and always a beautiful place to explore

Mowich Lake Road: requires constant vigilance and care, but passable by any normal car. It took me exactly an hour to drive the 20 miles from Coronado to the trail head.

Parking: Before dawn the main lot was 80% full of overnighters. In the afternoon cars were parked 1/2 mile up the road, but some spots were opening too.

Flora: Lush carpets of green turning autumn red, lots of big mushrooms.

Fauna: a loud but unseen owl; a bear grazing near the trail up to Hessong/Pleasant; a herd of goats; many grey nutcrackers; about 25 humans; no marmots :-(

Route: Spray Park trail up to its max elevation of about 6400 ft, plus some spurs:

• Eagle's Roost (twice—outbound and inbound)
• Spray Falls (also twice)
• Mt. Pleasant
• boot path from 6400 ft toward Echo Rock

Details:
To be clear, I didn't go anywhere near Echo Rock, just took the path in that direction about 1/2 mile. Total for the day was a little over 10 miles and about 2900 feet of climb.

I started at 6 AM, hiking by headlamp. In the pre-dawn forest an owl hooted persistently, and remarkably loudly. It must have been quite near, though I couldn't see it. I wondered if it might be mad and considering sinking its talons into me.

As everyone says, Spray Falls is breathtaking and highly recommended. Just note that getting the best view involves crossing the creek below the falls, requiring good traction, balance, and preferably poles. Today I saw it both in early-morning shadow, and in full afternoon sun; sun is better.

I thank trip reporter DK1998 for the report of 9/21 that brought Hessong Rock/Mt. Pleasant to my attention. The trail, which may also be a seasonal stream bed, is quite rugged but navigable. It goes almost straight up to the saddle between the two peaks, about 400 feet above the flattest part of Spray Park. This is a great place for a snack and expansive views. I could see a herd of about a dozen goats foraging on the very steep rocky slope below East Fay Peak, though they were so small at that distance it took me a while to recognize them.

Gazing at the rocky peak of Mt. Pleasant while snacking, I thought it would be accessible only via some very nasty scrambling, but fortunately I was wrong. There is a reasonable, scramble-free trail that snakes around the other side up to the peak, about 250 feet higher than the saddle, opening the full panorama all the way to Mt. Baker.

Coming down from Pleasant/Hessong requires attention to every step (poles recommended), and I was surprised to glance up at one point and realize there was a bear, perhaps 50 yards off the trail, at exactly my elevation. Just far enough away that the bear, focused on its breakfast, might not have noticed me yet, but close enough to be concerning. My first question was whether this might be part of a family—I really don't want to get involved in bear family dynamics. I looked around and was relieved to see no others. I made some human noises to announce my presence, and it didn't seem either interested or concerned. It did finally look up, straight at me, then went back to its foraging. Because of the steepness and roughness of the trail, and our relative positions, there was no quick way for me to put much more distance between us, and especially to keep an eye on the bear while moving. At least that's my excuse...for taking the time to fumble with my pack, pull out and install my long lens, and shoot some pictures. The bruin continued munching, glancing at me a couple more times before I carefully moved along. By the time I reached the bottom about 15 minutes later, the bear had moved on to someplace I couldn't see.

The rest of the way up the Spray Park trail was uneventful, but beautiful as always. It's hard to beat the variety of interesting terrain it covers, not to mention the constant presence of Mt. Rainier.

Since I started so early, I didn't meet anybody except the bear until I was almost at the farthest point of my hike. But on the way back I passed various parties totaling roughly 25 people, all friendly and courteous. And I was pleased to not see a single bit of litter (I have sensitive litter radar). All in all, a truly outstanding day.

We arrived at the trailhead around 9:30am after enduring the famously infamous Mowich Lake Road with its 11 miles of washboards and bomb craters. As expected the parking area was full and we had to join the line of cars forming along the road. It was slightly overcast and bit chilly, but as the day progressed the sun came out and it warmed up some.

The Spray Park trail is very easy for the first couple of miles, deeply forested with just modest ups and downs and numerous large old-growth trees along the way to keep things interesting. 1.5 miles in there is a viewpoint called "Eagle Cliff" that provides a very impressive view of The Mountain (you know which one I'm talking about). At 2.0 miles there is a short spur that leads to Spray Falls... definitely DO NOT miss this one as it's one of the prettiest waterfalls I have ever seen. Taking left at the spur leads you up the steep switchbacks to Spray Park itself.

Once at Spray Park my friend and I stopped to eat lunch, then we jointly decided that Mount Pleasant directly in front of us needed to be tackled as well. It's basically a near-vertical charge right up the face of the slope, barely zig-zagging at all as you deal with a slight scramble at times (it reminds me of Mount McCausland near Stevens Pass). The views south get better and better as you climb, until once you reach the saddle between Hessong Rock and Mount Pleasant the views are grand in all directions. But don't stop there... keep going east along the ridge crest until you reach the rocky top of Mount Pleasant where you can see all the way north to Baker, Glacier and Stuart. You can also see west towards the Puget Sound region, and of course Tahoma herself and Spray Park dominates the view to the south.

Getting back down required a lot of care, and IMHO poles are essential although a few other hikers still managed without. The foot traffic we encountered to and from Spray Park and Mount Pleasant was modest, and on this day everyone was super-friendly (yes I read the previous trip reports). The fall colors are starting to come out, and in a couple more weeks they should be at their peak. Numerous mushrooms large and small also dotted the landscape.

Our total distance hiked was around 8.5 miles, and with all of our messing around and picture-taking we didn't get back to our vehicle until 4:30pm. Once finally out of the park we stopped by the Carbonado Saloon for burgers and onion rings... definitely good food and super-nice people.

Decided to do Echo and Observation Rock today to complete my weird obsession with reddish looking mountain this year.

Started late at around 9:30 ish from Mowich CG via Knapsack Pass. Trail was a bit muddy in sections and some cairns marked the route near the boulders section.

Bold fall colors at the meadow area and there were many giant mushrooms along the trail.

There were few crevasses near the base of Flett Glacier. We went a bit SW to avoid the crevasses and some moats. The glacier was a mix of ice and suncupped snow. Brought ice axes, spikes, crampons and poles but we managed with just spikes and poles. 

I'd say the scramble to echo was a mix of class 2 and 3. There was an exposure for the last 20 ft or so to the spire. The summit was also small, and may only fit 2 or 3 people at a time.

We summited pretty late at around 3 PM and we made our way back to the saddle and went up to Observation rock. 

On few trip reports,the route to Observation was described as an easy walk-up with no exposure. Well, it wasn't like that for us 😀. There were lots of volcanic choss on the route and we also tagged the 'south peak' of Observation which also had some exposure.

Took the spray park trail back to the trailhead and had to don a headlamp for the last 2 hours of the hike.

Stats: 12.7 mi - a little over 12 hours with a slow pace.

Pulled off a 5 peak scramble adventure out of Mowich Lake trailhead with SoaringEagle: Fay Peak, East Fay Peak, First Mother Mountain, Mount Pleasant, and Hessong Rock. Weather was clear and not too hot or cold, only clouded over on Hessong and then for the hike out. A few class 3 moves here and there on the peaks, but mostly class 2 trail. Definitely some boulder hopping as well. 

Arrived at Mowich Lake TH around 8:30am. Long 15 miles drive on the dirt road, parts of it are OK, parts have plenty of potholes to navigate, but none of them super deep. Parking lot surprisingly busy for a weekday. Mostly trucks and SUVs and Subarus, but did see a Tesla Model 3. I'd want high clearance for the road, but doable in a sedan I suppose if you don't mind it taking a beating. 

Started a loop going clockwise from the big campground and up the old unmaintained trail to access the trail to Fay Peak. Hiked the ridge and followed faint trails to achieve the summit of East Fay Peak. Then worked our way down the grassy slopes below and found a trail that took us back over to Knapsack Pass. From here we took a trail up to First Mother Mountain. Then back down and descended from Knapsack Pass. Hiked this for a bit, lots of boulders, then shortcut the trail to go straight up to the ridge to intersect the trail that goes to Mount Pleasant. From Mount Pleasant we followed trails to get up to Hessong Rock. Back tracked to the saddle between Hessong and Pleasant and took steep switchbacks down to Spray Park to hit the main trail, turned right and headed out for the 3+ miles to get back to the TH. 

Stats: 8 miles, 3300' gain, 6:25 total time, 0:55 stopped time

Gear: Grippy trail runners for rock as well as gloves. Had a filter for water, but didn't use. Water sources at various places. 

GPX: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2648257