Mount Rainier National Park – Spray Park Hike

Overview

We started at Mowich Lake, following the advice on the Mount Rainier Spray Park Trail page and the WTA’s Spray Park page. We intended to hike up to Spray Park and turn around, but we ended up wandering toward Observation Rock. We never made up to Observation Rock (8,364 ft); we turned around at 7,200 ft at the edge of Flett Glacier. The Spray Park hike puts at 75 total hiking miles this summer over 7 substantial hikes (minus the jaunt to Hidden Lake). Our annus mirabilis for hiking.
 

Flora and Fauna

In the first part of the hike, which is filled with trees with occasional sun, we saw the following:

• Ochotona princeps - American Pika. Spotted around the Mowich Lake parking area.
• Corydalis scouleri - Scouler's Fumewort Flowers. We are going to guess that this plant honors the Scottish naturalist, John Scouler (1904 – 1981) who visited the Northwest in 1825.
• Lycopodium clavatum - Running Clubmoss with it’s handsome sporophylls.
• Mycena strobilinoides – Scarlet Fairy Helmet found in needle beds and moss.
• Cladonia sp. – Cladonia, a moss-like lichen with “tube-like” structures.
• Pterospora andromedea – Pinedrops

After we arrived in the Spray Park meadow we saw:

• Gentiana calycosa - Mountain Bog Gentian in the Spray Park meadows.
• Potentilla flabellifolia - Fan-Leaved Cinquefoil
• Tofielda glutinosa - Sticky False Asphodel with its reddish flower buds.
• Amanita muscaria - Fly Agaric, the quintessential toadstool. What is agaric? From Wikipedia “An agaric is a type of fungal fruiting body characterized by the presence of a pileus (cap) that is clearly differentiated from the stipe (stalk), with lamellae (gills) on the underside of the pileus.” The specific epithet comes from the Latin musca for fly and is based on a history of its use as an insecticide when sprinkled in milk.

As we climbed higher into Spray park we saw:

• Saxifraga tolmiei – Tolmie’s Saxifrage. Honors William Frasser Tolmie (1812 – 1886). Also accessible from Mowich is the Tolmie Peak trail.
• Empetrum nigrum – Black Crowberry.
• Lupinus lepidus var. lobbii – Dwarf lupine.
• Lagopus leucura – White-tailed Ptarmigan. This ptarmigan was very calm; he didn’t seem to scare easily from his meal of crowberries.
• Cicindela depressula – Dispirited Tiger Beetle. (Thanks to reader cicindela who pointed this out.) This is the first time that we ever saw this beautiful beetle with its big set of mandibles. The generic name comes for the Latin cicindela, “glow –worm in Pling the Elder” [ZooKeys 245: 1-1722 (2012) p. 310]
• Melanoplus femurrubrum – nymph, we think.

 

Stats

Length: 12 miles roundtrip.
Duration: 10:07 left trailhead, arrived back at 5:35pm. About 7.5 hours.
Elevation: Started at 4,000 (Mowich Lake), turn around at 7,200 (estimated), near, but well below Observation Rock (8,364 ft) at Turn around point from Garmin: N 46°, 54.559", W 121° 48.424" or 46.9093, -121.8071.
Location: Mt. Rainier -- NW - Carbon River / Mowich, Mt. Rainier National park.

Left: Cladonia sp.; Right: Lycopodium clavatum - Running Clubmoss

Left: Mycena strobilinoides; Center: Pterospora andromedea – Pinedrops; Right: A handful of forest berries including Streptopus amplexifolius (left, red), Clintonia uniflora (middle, blue), and Rubus pedatus (right, red)


Corydalis scouleri - Scouler's Fumewort Flowers


Amanita muscaria - Fly Agaric


Gentiana calycosa - Mountain Bog Gentian with Insects


Left: Tofielda glutinosa - Sticky False Asphodel; Center: Potentilla flabellifolia - Fan-Leaved Cinquefoil; Right: Aster alpigenus submerged in water


Pedicularis - Lousewort and Castilleja - Indian Paint Brush in Spray Park

Lagopus leucura – White-tailed Ptarmigan and Empetrum nigum – Crowberry

Cicindela depressula – Dispirited Tiger Beetle in Spray Park. Thanks to reader cicindela who pointed this out.


Left: Lupinus lepidus var. lobbii – Dwarf lupine on pumice and scoria; Center: Melanoplus femurrubrum?; Right: Saxifraga tolmiei – Tolmie’s Saxifrage


Left: Mount Rainier from Eagle's Cliff Lookout; View from Spray Park Looking North


Left: View Looking Up Flett Glacier Toward Mount Rainier with Echo Rock; Right: View Up Flett Glacier Looking Toward Mount Rainier with Observation Rock

Left: View Toward Ptarmigan Ridge West and Tillicum Point; Right View Northwest from Spray Park


Left: View from Below Observation Rock, looking north over Spray Park; Right: Echo Rock

Left: Ochotona princeps - American Pika; Right: Topo map showing the start and finish of the Spray Park hike