Last weekend, we headed out to Mt Rainier National Park with Brooke, Erika, and Bryan for a day hike loop starting and ending at Mowich Lake.
We started by heading up the creek basin towards Knapsack Pass.
Once we reached Knapsack Pass, clouds had come in and completely blocked all views of Mt Rainier and well as the basin below. We took this opportunity to stop for a break and hope the clouds would lift.
We hung out for at least a half hour. The clouds lifted a little exposing the basin below but still no Mt Rainier. We decided to head towards Mt Pleasant.
After crossing the basin, we al hiked up to the summit of Mt Pleasant.
As we sat on the summit, the clouds began to break around Mt Rainier. We were sure the view was going to get amazing at any minute.
Mt Rainier peering through clouds from Mt Pleasant
But after 30 minutes longer and still no view, we gave up and started hiking down into Spray Park.
As we got close to Spray Park, we spotted a bear dinning on berries. We watched him for quite awhile.
Before we dropped down the trail toward Mowich Lake, we got a view of Hessong Rock.
Looking up at Hessong Rock from Spray Park
Once we were back at Mowich Lake, we said goodbye to Erika and Bryan. Brooke, Jim, and I headed off to Summit Lake. Our plan was to camp at the lake. On the way up the trail, we finally got a view of Mt Rainier.
We arrived Summit Lake just before dark and used headlamps to find a suitable campsite. We were only going to be here one night so our campsite didn’t have to be spectacular.
We set an alarm for 5:50am to give us time to hike up the ridge for sunrise. Totally worth it.
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