If you want WILDFLOWERS… Spray Park at Mt. Rainier is the place to go. Denise and I hit the wildflowers at their prime (as well as the bugs at their prime) at the beginning of August.
We started at Mowich Lake (about 12 miles of gravel road, some of it with a good amount of potholes and washboard, but still fun) We took the little side trip to Spray Falls, which is hard to see unless you can cross the stream to the other side, but the water was high enough that we didn’t feel comfortable with it, so we got 1/2 of the waterfall instead.
We then continued on up to Spray Park, which has spectacular views of Rainier along with a complete riot of wildflowers. It is just gorgeous up here, and photos can’t convey how many flowers there are in every direction you look.
If you want Rainier wildflowers and don’t want to put up with the masses of crowds and tourists at Paradise… definitely consider Spray Park instead.
