We drove up to Mowich Lake on the west side of Mt Rainier National Park to hike up to Spray Park and enjoy the wildflowers in bloom, 8 miles round trip with 1,900 ft of gain. Saw more backpackers than day hikers today. Love seeing so many avalanche lilies in bloom!
The first 2. 8 miles in the forest. There are a few water crossings on log bridges and many woodland wildflowers in bloom.
The first part of the trail is very nice, before it gets rocky and Rooty.
View of Mt Rainer from Eagle Cliff Viewpoint
Lots of water flowing in the creeks.
I love the wonder of exiting the forest, crossing this log bridge and seeing our first meadow and a view of Mt Rainier after the last switchbacks in the forest.
Heather, bright magnet paintbrush and more in the first meadow.
Another view of Mt Rainier before another short section of trail through the woods.
Many magenta paintbrush coloring Spray Park.
Reflection of Mt Rainier in a small tarn.
One of many frogs in the tarn.
Lots of heather in bloom, both white and pink.
We took our time, sauntering up the trial, enjoying the flowers and views!
Looking back towards Hessong Rock and Mount PleasantLove this meadow, with views towards Mother Mountain
Beautiful tarn in this meadowContinuing up the trail
There was one soft snow field to cross before reaching the high point on the trail.Distant views were a bit hazy today.
Last stretch of trail before we took our lunch break and turned around.
We saw mountain goats as we were coming back down through Spray Park.
Clouds were starting to gather near the mountain.
A few more photos as we hiked back through Spray Park.
some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail today:
No comments:
Post a Comment