Mount Rainier: Tolmie Peak Lookout & Spray Park

Part I

Of all the amazing places I visited during my summer at Mount Rainier, perhaps the most impressive of all was the Tolmie Peak fire lookout. There are four fire lookouts in the Park, and although they're no longer utilized for that purpose, they are still available for overnight use for park employees. Tolmie was so impressive that I actually made an overnight trip there twice, with my friends Shenon, Ted, and Russ.

 

My two trips to Tolmie were just over a month apart, and it was really interesting to see the ecological changes of the area in such a short time frame. The first trip presented a boom of avalanche lillies, while on the next trip there wasn't a single avalanche lilly to be found, and the other types of flowers - lupines, paintbrush, etc.- were already past their peak bloom (however, still impressive). The constant and rapid changes that present themselves are truly wonders to behold. A brief window for a flower to become polinated by a passing insect, just to wither away, weeks, or even days later.

 

The pictures you will see here are a combination between my two trips (note: the avalance lilies were from my first trip, the lupines and paintbrush were from the second trip. Beargrass was observed during both trips).

 

To access the trail, we had to drive out of the Park's Nisqually Entrance, and back in, via state route 165. The last five miles of this road is dirt, but it is easily accessed during the summer months. The road dead ends at a large parking area next to Mowich Lake, the largest and deepest lake in the Park. This is where the trailhead is accessed.

The first part of the trail skirts around Mowich Lake to the north, before eventually turning in an easterly direction. Before long, the trail began to ascend switchbacks as we hiked through old growth forest. This part of the hike was fairly uneventful, but I knew that something outstanding was waiting ahead.

 

We eventually started to see vegetation changes, as the trees became smaller and more stunted as we reached higher country. After gaining steadily for about three miles, our heavy packs (loaded with overnight gear and tasty beverages) were becoming tiresome. We were finally relieved by flatter terrain, and the opening of several small meadows.

 

We were awarded by an impressive array of of avalanche lilies:

By contrast, lupine, paintbrush, and arnica on our second trip to Tolmie:

Soon, a beautiful subalpine lake came into view. This was Eunice Lake.

 

Shenon and Ted hanging out next to Eunice:

Towering above the lake on a ridgetop was Tolmie Peak lookout, our goal for the day.

It looked so close; only about a mile to go. A very steep mile. I could only imagine how awesome the view would be once we reached the top.

 

After taking a break at Eunice Lake, it was time to hit the trail again. At the very least, we wanted to reach the top by sunset. Along the way, we discovered some ponds, this one providing a reflection of Rainier peaking up, just above the trees.  

The avalanche lilies were out in full force.

As we began to ascend the ridge towards the lookout, Rainier, which was previously obstructed by trees, came into view in its entirety. Eunice Lake was also visible below us.

The large, white flowers in the foreground are called bear grass. Unmistakable with its very tall stalk, it was one of the few flowers that was present during both of our trips to Tolmie Peak. Although the plant is grasslike, bear grass is actually a member of the lily family. If you look closely at the flowers you'll see that they look similar to avalanche lilies:

Nearby, we also discovered some vibrantly colored tiger lilies, one of my personal favorites! This was one of only a couple of locations that I saw these all summer.

It wasn't long before we reached the top of the ridge, thoroughly worn out from the mile of vertical elevation from Eunice Lake. From there, it was a flat ridgetop hike to reach the lookout.

 

We arrived just before sunset, shed our bags, and liberally applied bug spray (the mosquitos were at full force!). We admired the view from the balcony of the lookout, which was up a single flight of stairs. As the sun began to set, we knew that this would be the real highlight of our trip.

 

The sun cast a pink alpenglow on Rainier and the surrounding horizon. What a gorgeous evening!

Rainier with Eunice Lake below.

 Even Mount St. Helens was visible far in the distance.

I was unable to capture the rest of the evening on camera. It was spent stargazing, admiring a bright orange crescent moon, and enjoying the company of some good friends in an unbelievable place. I'll never forget it. 

During our first trip in to Tolmie, I had to work the following morning so an early start was necessary. The sunrise that morning was every bit as good as the sunset from the previous night. 

Writing about my experiences with Tolmie Peak Lookout really brings me back there. I'd love to return some day. Few places have satisfied my craving for outdoor beauty quite the same way since.

 

Me, Shenon, and Ted inside of the lookout (me on the right): 

 

I'll leave you with this last photo. If this doesn't make sense to you, that's okay. Explaining it would be less meaningful than just letting it be, and hoping it brings some smiles.

___________________________________________________________________Part II

On our second trip to Tolmie Peak, none of us had to work the next day and the plan was to hike to another area nearby called Spray Park. For some reason, I was the only one that woke up feeling energized, and my friends all decided they weren't up for the trip. I was actually excited for it, and we had taken two cars to the trailhead, so things were still in place for me to do the solo hike.

 

After packing up and saying our goodbyes to Tolmie, we hiked back to the parking area. As we arrived, I saw a couple of familiar faces getting out of a car. It was Sam (a park ranger who also lived in Longmire) and Terra, who worked for the GSI company in the lodge. We asked what they were up to, and sure enough, they were also hiking to Spray Park. They were happy to let me join them on the adventure.

 

There are two different ways to hike into Spray Park from Mowich Lake. One of the routes follows a trail that doesn't appear on most maps (highlighted in yellow on the map below), which goes over an area called Knapsack Pass before descending into Spray Park. The other option would be following the Wonderland Trail. We decided it would be best to make it a loop hike, starting on the Knapsack Pass route, and finishing back on the Wonderland Trail near Mowich Lake.

Despite not being a "mapped" trail, it was pretty well established and easy to follow. As we hiked, we passed a waterfall that provided us with a welcome cooldown on the warm, clear day.

 

The trail ascended gently for a while before nearing Knapsack Pass. At this point, we obviously had a bit of a workout ahead of us.

 

Here's a look at the pass that we needed to ascend:

The photo makes it looks slightly more gnarly than it actually was, but there was still some huffing and puffing involved (at least on my part) on the way up.

 

As we neared the rocky ridgetop, I needed a break and turned around to see our progress. Mowich Lake was looming in the distance.

When we finally reached the top, we found a place to relax for a lunch break while enjoying some nice views of the newly visible Rainier.

 There were some cool rock formations nearby, too.

After our lunch break, we descended the other side of the pass. The trail became harder to follow, as there were some huge snow patches that appeared to be covering it. Still, we continued in the general direction of Spray Park, hiking over snow and following other people's tracks. Eventually, the snow patches disappeared and we rediscovered the trail.

 

Finally, we started to see more people as we reached the trail's junction with the Wonderland Trail. We continued west on the Wonderland while enjoying some views of Rainier, and a nice display of wildflowers; mostly lupine and magenta paintbrush.  

After enjoying the flowers and scenery, we reversed direction on the Wonderland Trail and started to make our way back to Mowich Lake to complete our loop.

 

While on our way back, we took a small detour to Spray Falls:

We hung out here for a while before continuing back towards the trailhead.

 

From here, we were all a little anxious to get back so we picked up our pace, and covered quite a bit of distance pretty fast. Sam and Terra had Tolmie Peak Lookout reserved that night so they still had some hiking to do.

 

As for me, the back-to-back days of hiking and the overnight stay at Tolmie left me in desperate need of a warm shower.

 

As I drove back to Longmire that afternoon, I was feeling tired yet completely content. It had been two days and one night of amazing scenery, great company, and memories created that I'll never forget.