The Mountain put it all on display for us. And it was in a place I've never been, but one I'll surely return to.

We started in the dark. No surprise there, right? The trail started with a long downhill. One of my rules is to stay away from routes that start going down because that means we have to climb to exit. Well, tough. This wasn't going to be an easy day anyway.

At the bottom of the descent we took a few moments to detour to Spray Falls. Gorgeous. Stunning. No wonder so many people come here. Neat. Back to the trail and the climb.

We got sneak peeks of the peak (ha!) through the trees as we climbed. The rising sun cast a shadow reaching into the sky. We were still mostly in the shade, but with no clouds in the sky the weather was looking to deliver.

When we broke out of the trees we could see our destination. Observation Rock towers above the upper edge of Spray Park. A park in the Park? Sort of. There are a number of relatively flat and open meadow-like areas surrounding Tahoma. They're generally gorgeous places with incredible views. Spray Park was no different. The trail we were on cut through Spray Park as a sort of shortcut for the northeast corner of the Wonderland Trail that circumnavigates the Mountain.

Just before crossing a snowfield below Lee Mountain, we turned south toward Tahoma and used the snow as a highway to climb. Late season snow makes travel so much easier. Where the snow ran out, we hopped on the unofficial trail. It twisted and turned through boulders and fuzzy blobs... wait. What's that?

Hello, bear! The black bear was climbing the ridge just like us. It was time for us to talk to ourselves. "Yo, bear! Sup, bear? Hey, bear!" The bear disappeared around a rock and we continued our noise while clambering up to the top abandoning the trail to avoid surprising it. We needn't have bothered; the bear must have bailed off the ridge away from us.

Another snow field and then the Flett Glacier spread out before us. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Looks steep. Captain Safety took over my brain. Nope. Not crossing a glacier, even an old and pretty mellow glacier late in the season. It's just not something you do. Instead, I assessed our risk as lower if we circled around Echo Rock to bypass the glacier.

Score one against Captain Safety. While we weren't on a glacier as we traversed around Echo, we were definitely in greater peril. The rocks were huge and loose. It's a wonder they're holding their place as well as they were. Poor Ryan suffered from another of my decisions. Every time it looked like we were about to make significant progress, we had to detour a little. It felt like way too long until we had gained the ridge and could look down on the Flett again.

And there were people casually strolling across the glacier. Dang. Live and learn. Or at least don't die and learn.

The final climb to the summit of Observation was easy, though not exactly pleasant. The rocks weren't huge like they were on the other side of Echo, but they were loose. Each step included at least half a step back or down. We met a party near the summit as they were coming down. They attested to safe passage across the glacier, though one of them did lose a phone to a crevasse.

Big views! The light wasn't great for shots of Tahoma, but the big glaciers spilling down her flanks were gorgeous. The Carbon, in particular, was unbelievable. Parts of it were covered in rock, bits were fracturing as it descended the mountain, and at least one was receiving the first sunlight of the day and was shrouded in mist. Did I mention it was spectacular?

Both Ryan and I were convinced returning the way we had come was not something we wanted to do. We looked at other options. We could follow Ptarmigan Ridge to Tillicum Point and down through Spray Park, but that'd be all off-trail and could present unknown challenges. We could try to descend the west edge of the Flett, staying on the dry ground, but it looked really loose and not much better than the other side of Echo Rock.

We decided we'd try the direct exit over the Flett Glacier knowing we could retreat and swing around Echo if we needed to. With Microspikes, we had no problem with traction. The big crevasses were on the east side of the glacier so they were also of no concern. And the really steep bit that had scared me off the glacier in the first place? Optical illusion. It wasn't as steep as it looked.

All that was left was following our route in back to the trailhead. Of course we had to stop for the views. And when we saw the next bear. (This one was far enough away to be of little concern.) We only missed getting a bear hat trick because we apparently walked right passed a sow and two cubs without seeing it. That's about the only regret from the day.

Oh. And having to climb back up the 600 feet from Spray Falls back to the trailhead. Never trust a trail that starts downhill. Unless it's going through Spray Park. In that case, don't trust it, but go anyway. It's worth it.

📍On the lands of the Puyallup people.