Spray Park — Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024

Bottom Line:

Sunny AM to socked-in PM, but pretty either way with lots of flowers and critters. The smoke finally cleared out today, although no views in the afternoon. Temperatures were nice and cool, and there is lots of water on most of the trail for filtering to minimize weight. No real mosquitos left, but oodles of butterflies and bees! Spray Falls is particularly lovely right now with the lower waterflow, and a pretty easy creek crossing. Bears are common in Spray Park, and today was no exception, with an exceptionally large cinnamon bear chowing down in the meadows.

Stats:

• Distance: 12-1/2 miles (include boot-path and Spray Falls)
• Vertical: 2960 ft
• Duration: ~7 hours
• Road/Parking: No reservations required for the Mowich Entrance! The trailhead was not busy, and Spray Park even less so. A ranger was checking cars for National Park passes and issuing lots of tickets. He was also stopping cars on the road and turning them around to use the self-service kiosk ~5 miles back if one did not have a pass. The road is dusty as usual - slow speeds in pedestrian areas much appreciated ;)
• Weather: Mostly sunny with some haze AM to socked-in PM; light wind; 50-60s; bugs are mostly done for the season so did not notice mosquitos except in boggy areas nears streams
• Water: The trail up to the top of the switchbacks entering Spray Park has plenty of water for filtering; Spray Park is much drier, and the climber's boot-path up toward Echo/Observation Rock has no water on the ridge, so carry water for that part of the hike
• Flora/Fauna: Marmots, pika and a very large cinnamon bear ~1 miles into Spray Park (sorry, did not get a good pic). Butterflies and bees were also out in full force. While the flowers were not prolific (not like Panorama Ridge earlier this week), the variety was definitely good. Note that the flowers on the boot-path tundra are already almost done, with the dwarf paintbrush fading quickly. Among the flowers: paintbrush (red, magenta), heather (white, pink), penstemon, avalanche lily, coltsfoot, monkey-flower, explorer's gentian, bistort, pearly everlasting, rosy spiraea, fireweed, yarrow, arrowleaf groundsel, coiled lousewort, aster, corn lily, thistle, fleabane, lupine, arnica, cow-parsnip and umbrella wort.
• Trail: The trail is in good condition. There are some muddy sections on the switchbacks up to Spray Park, as well as some sections where water is flowing over the trail. Once you enter Spray Park at ~2.8 miles, you can traverse the meadows enjoying the flowers and views and gaining the high point of the trail with a huge cairn at the boundary between Spray and Seattle Parks (there is a snowfield to cross to continue). This is where the climber's boot-path up the ridge begins. The terrain on the ridge is very different, with boulders covered in black lichen (the lichen that gives Blackcomb Mountain its name in BC), and dense succulents, heather and various dwarf flowers. Beautiful!
• Takeaway: A number of skiers still hauling their gear up to the snowfields around Echo/Observation Rocks for some turns - I guess I need to try that one of these times! I was tempted to make a loop of upper Spray Park by climbing down the ridge on the west side to meet up with the boot-path to the little lake below Observation Rock that I explored on my last visit - I could see the trail, and the descent from my perch was straightforward, but I decided I wanted to retrace my steps to see some more critters.

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.instagram.com/wta_alpinewanderer/
• https://wildflowersearch.org/search?oldstate=gms%3A4%3Bgmc%3A46.922357,-121.833222%3Bbloom%3AIgnore%3Blocation%3ASpray%20Park%20(Mt.%20Rainier),+WA