Spray Park

 We drove up to Mowich Lake at Mt Rainier National Park to hike up to Spray Park. We hiked 8.5 miles round trip with 1,700 ft of overall gain. We saw wildflowers in bloom at the trailhead.

The first 2 miles are on a trail that gently go down and up along the forest. Along the way we passed two open fields with wildflowers.

The Sierra Larkspur were in bloom with other flowers.

We also found some ripe blueberries to eat.

bridge crossing at the second open area

2 miles from the trailhead, we crossed a lovely stream on a log bridge, from here the trail gains elevation in a series of switchbacks over 0. 6 miles.

We crossed another stream on a log bridge and entered Spray Park

There was a large lenticular cloud over Mt Rainier, this is the view from below.

The trail continued in the forest for a short ways before opening again in wide meadows.

Up near Hessong Rock, we saw a black bear.

The bear was very far from us, as seen in this blurry zoom photo.

Lots of lupine lining the trail

paintbrush and lupine along with a view of Mt Rainier

both white and pink heather in bloom

wildflowers continuing to line the trail

Here were avalanche lilies, paintbrush and parsley

large meadow of bistort, paintbrush and lupin in the meadow with Mother Mountain in the distance

Further up the trail, we would cross a snowfield

We did not need to use traction to cross the snowfield.

We continued up to the high point on the trail (about 6,400 ft) before stopping for a lunch break and returning the way we came.

So enjoyable to walk again through Spray Park and watch the clouds lift above Mt Rainier.

love the wildflowers, here fleabane, paintbrush, lousewort and lupine,

heather, lousewort and lupine,

lupine, paintbrush and fleabane

tarn along an authorized boot track in Spray Park

a look back at Mt Rainier as we leave Spray Park

some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail today: