Spray Park

Spray Falls

My hike yesterday to Spray Park, in the northwest corner of Rainier National Park, was perhaps premature -- by just two or three weeks.

The first couple of miles were beautiful, and easy hiking, through dense old-growth timber.  The definite high point was a short side trip to the bottom of Spray Falls -- an unexpectedly high spill of water over rock, kicking up billowing clouds of the eponymous spray.

After Spray Falls, the trail begins a series of steep switchbacks, leading to the lower meadows of Spray Park -- the "park" being a series of alpine meadows that climb higher and higher to a ridge separating Spray Park from Seattle Park to the east, or, as my guide puts it, "a vast corridor of open meadows interspersed among rocky moraines, lingering snow patches, whistling marmots, and sun-basking hikers."

The snow has been melting rapidly in our unaccustomedly sunny weather, but still covers much of the path once the hiker has ventured into open meadows.  The lower portion of Spray Park, where I ended my hike and had lunch, is slightly more than half free of snow cover, but the snow was obviously more extensive as the path rose higher.  I had done enough hiking (and postholing) in soft snow a couple of weeks ago at Mt. Pilchuck. 


Rainier and avalanche lilies

The views of Mt. Rainier and surrounding hills and ridges were impressive, and themselves worth the hike.  And it was interesting to see the bare meadows at this point, shortly after the snow cover had melted.  The grass was still gray and bedraggled, but the eager avalanche lilies were already emerging and covering the ground in places. 

No "whistling marmots" to entertain me, but I did encounter "camp robbers" (these appeared to be gray jays), who carried on prolonged negotiations with me for bits of my sandwich.  (I know, don't feed the animals -- but this was just a little convivial breaking of bread together).

Camp robbers

No marmots and -- in response to nervous queries from hikers I met coming up as I was returning -- no bears.  Or cougars.  

Nor many "sun-basking hikers" -- a bit early in the season, even in mid-July, and the early sunshine had changed to a cloud cover by the time I reached Spray Park.

I returned to the car happy, but not quite satisfied.  If I'd waited about three more weeks, Spray Park probably would have been stunning -- snow-free trails and carpets of wild flowers.  A good incentive to return, only slightly negated by the need to negotiate a dusty  17-mile gravel road leading to the trailhead.