Knapsack Pass

It had been many years since I had spent much time in Mount Rainier Park. I had summited the peak years ago and I have also done the wonderland trail in one go, but apart from the occasional day trip, I haven’t backpacked there recently.

There is something about Washington’s high meadows that are unique and I wanted to go back.

For those coming from California, Washington weather basically sucks. The weather is fairly unpredictable all year round – snow in July, rain anytime, cold one day, hot and humid the next. But if you hit that stretch of sunny, clear weather. It is glorious. For those who live there, you plan accordingly and deal with it.

Camp

I picked early September for the four night trip figuring I’d at least miss the tourist crowds and the weather can still be quite nice. The area, Spray Park, I had visited on my Wonderland trip and remembered as being spectacular. Great views of the mountain and there were many different areas to explore – other parks or up above treeline. Getting there was pretty straight forward. A fairly short hike from Mowich Lake past Spray Falls.

Of course, not being satisfied with a ‘straight forward’ route, I picked what looked to be a interesting off-trail route from Mowich Lake over Knapsack pass and then on to Spray Park. As it turned out, this is an unofficial ‘trailed’ route that was easy to follow and didn’t really require any route finding… but still less traveled than the main trail.

Low Clouds on the mountain

We left on a grand clear and sunny Tuesday up and over Knapsack pass into the basin above Mist Park. There we camped two nights. Did some exploring around the area, tried to make it down to Mist Park the next day which didn’t really work out. Steep and brushy descents and couldn’t really find a good route through it. The weather turned a bit overcast and cool that day, with a threat of rain, but nothing but a few sprinkles to show for it.

Mist Park

The terrain here is rough and broken up, moss covered and green just about everywhere. Yes, it must rain here a bit. The views are spectacular, overlooking Mist park and when the clouds clear, full view of the mountain itself. Watched some mountain goats climb up to their safety zone high on the ridge above and I was amazed at how agile they were.

Spray Park

The next day we were off to Spray Park. Weather had cleared and was just perfect. Spray park is quite large, made up of smaller parks separated by lateral moraines from when the mountain glaciers were much lower. Pick a site to camp… there are plenty.

Spray park borders the tree line at about 6500 feet or so and there are plenty of opportunities to explore the mountain side for views up the mountain and out away from it without having to venture out onto the glaciers where climbing skills are required. I had the urge to do just that, but time was limited and I had other places in mind to visit during my short stay here.

Evening view of the mountain

We spent two nights here at Spray Park. Spent a day wandering over into Seattle Park – another high meadow area – and to an overlook above the Carbon Glacier with its dirty dark surface where it gets its name. It looked like the glacier had receded since I remember it in the early ’80s when I took a trip to Mystic Lake with my grandfather from Carbon River.

Saturday we hiked out along the main trail back to Mowich Lake. It was getting warm and humid, but the trip was mostly downhill, so easy going. The number of people coming in as we were hiking out was amazing. Some backpacking, most day hiking. Streams of hikers. We got to the parking lot and the cars stretched a quarter mile along the road. A nice weekend and Seattle apparently just vacates off to the mountains. Be warned.

Tags: alpine meadows, Backpacking, Mount Rainier, Mountains