Mowich-Spray Park-Seattle Park-Carbon River-Ipsut Falls-Ipsut Pass-Mowich WOW!

In our Wonderland Trail book the recommend this as a great 2 day option but we were on a roll after hiking Upper Lena Lake Saturday, Grand Park through the back door Sunday we decided to get a 40 mile weekend of hiking in by doing the distance in one day.

Garry, Pam and I hit the trail at 7:10 AM and headed towards Spray Park. There are 2 overlooks on this side that we took and they were well worth taking. After the turnout to Spray Park Falls we started uphill. The climb begins at 4900 feet and ends at the pass at 6400. In between is the beautiful Spray Park.

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Mowich Lake


 

Eagle's Roost Overlook
 

Spray Falls
 

 

We made the pass in 2 1/2 hours and were feeling great. The descent was more technical and difficult than we had hoped so the going was not as fast as we wanted but we were in the eat as you walk and keep moving mode.

We made it to the junction for the Wonderland Trail at Carbon River to find that the trail was closed and there was a detour that would add about 6/10s of a mile to our trip. We could have known this ahead of time by checking trail conditions on NPS.gov, but here are 3 knuckleheads who think it's a good idea to do a 16.4 mile hike to finish off a three day hiking weekend.

The bonus of the detour was a suspension bridge we got to go over. We made our way through the detour and were at Ipsut Falls in 6 hours where we replenished our water and headed up the hill to Ipsut Pass - a 2700 foot of elevation 3.5 mile slog on a tight - slightly overgrown- rocky trail.

The thing that kept us going there was knowing there was an easy mile of decent trail left to the car once we made the pass. With Pam leading and setting the pace we made to pass in 2 hours and made it back to the car in 8 1/2 hours total.

We finished out 3 day hiking weekend with 41.86 miles and 12,175 feet of elevation gain. Our feet are wrecked and we are moving slowly today, but I would do it again for the fantastic views and the sense of doing something very cool.

Be very well and more soon....