[ragman and rodman]

Our party of four drove to Mowich Lake (4929’) in Mt. Rainier National Park... we quickly found the Wonderland Trail and took it into Spray Park. A little more than half-way through Spray Park we left the maintained trail and turned southeast, using faint to good boot-path as we headed toward Echo Rock and Observation Rock… we crossed the Flett Glacier to the ridge south of Echo Rock and found a good boot-path leading up to the cliffy area of Echo… traversing north underneath the Echo cliffs we found the obvious route to the summit (7870’) on the north side… it was easy Class 3 from the cliffy area to the summit. From Echo Rock, we were able to use reasonable boot-path and snow-path to the ridge south of Observation and then easily reached the summit (8364’) from its west side. On our return route we crossed back over the Flett Glacier and returned to Spray Park via a ridge east of our entry route… from the east end of Spray Park we climbed to the east ridge of Mt. Pleasant and found boot-path leading down into Mist Park which we used to reach Knapsack Pass... then 1.5 miles back to the car... a very long, but beautiful day. 13.5 miles roundtrip, gaining 4349 feet of elevation. Still lots of snow in Spray Park although the trail to Spray Park is basically snow-free... and still lots of snow on the east side of Knapsack Pass. The trail from Knapsack Pass to Mowich Lake is in serious need of repair... down trees, drainage issues, etc. The dirt road to Mowich Lake is in excellent shape. GPS route and photos of our Observation/Echo Rock hike. ..

[TrailPair]

That is such a beautiful hike. Last October we camped below Echo Rock, and it was spectacular!