Spray Park

 We drove up to Mowich Lake on the west side of Mt Rainier National Park to hike up to Spray Falls and Spray Park. We ended up hiking through most of Spray Park (up to 6,300+ ft) for an 8.7 mile round trip hike with about 1,900 ft of overall elevation gain.



The first two miles of the trail is through the forest and lose/gains 200' in elevation.
We saw several wildflowers in bloom along this lower section, including corydalis and vanilla leaf.












 The trail goes through a meadow and across a large talus field. This meadow was filled with shooting stars and anemones.

 This meadow was filled with avalanche lilies.

















About 1.7 miles from the trailhead is a very short spur trail to a view point at Eagle Cliff. We were happy to see that most of Mt Rainier wa visible beneath the clouds.

 There were a few beargrass in bloom.

 Lots of water in the small creek we passed.

 A little over 2 miles, there is a 1.0 spur trail to Spray Falls, a log bridge crosses over Grant Creek on the way there.

 The water in Spray Creek was flowing rapidly and the rocks were very slick, so I did not cross over to the other side, but looked up towards Spray Falls from boulders part way across the creek.

 Back to the trail junction, the trail steeply climbs up switchbacks through the woods, we saw more meadows filled with avalanche lilies.

 Log bridge over Grant Creek leads into Spray Park, where there is a nice view of Mt Rainier, before reentering the forest.

 The trail continues through Spray Park for a couple of miles. Views of Mt Rainier can be seen from many sections of the trail

 In the lower park, there were a couple of snow patches that were thin and easy to cross.

 It was a great day for cloud watching as the clouds seemed to dance around Mt Rainier.

 More varieties of wild flowers are beginning to bloom along the trail.

 More meadows filled with avalanche lilies

Further up the trail, at 6,000' and above, there are larger snow fields to cross. These were not difficult, and in the late morning, the snow was soft

 Lots of heather in bloom along the trail at the upper park.

 On the far side of Spray Park, we could look down at Mist Park, that was covered by clouds today.

 Returning down the trail, we had plenty of opportunity to watch the clouds on Mt Rainier.

 The melting snow created some lovely tarns.

 Lenticular cloud forming over Mt Rainier

 This was right before Mt Rainier completely disappeared in the clouds.

 Avalanche lilies were the predominant wildflower at Spray Park today.

 nice alpine reflection

 By the time we were hiking down from Spray Park, we were in the clouds.
















some of the wildflowers we saw in bloom along the trail today: