A Tiring Day at Mount St. Helens
Pacific Northwest September Travelog #11
Vancouver, WA - Sun, 4 Sep 2022, 9:30pm
Day 2 of our three-day weekend trip to Washington has been another tiring day, much like Day 1. Today we visited Mount St. Helens National Monument. Yes, we were at Mount St. Helens on our previous trip just four weeks ago. But that was at Windy Ridge, on the east side. Today we visited the east side. Mount St. Helens is one of those awesome parks where there are multiple entrances and the only way between them is to hike. (I can only think of two others in the US like that, Pinnacles National Park and the Grand Canyon.)
Our main event at Mount St. Helens was hiking the ridge trail from the Johnston RIdge Observatory around to Devil's Point. It was 4+ miles of nonstop 360° views, including of the volcano's ravaged north face. After that we two-fer'ed the trip with a visit to Coldwater Lake, a large lake that was created 42 years ago when debris from the volcanic explosion dammed a creek. Then we three-fer'ed it with a hike on the Hummocks Trail, winding around small hills that are actually pieces of the volcano transported several miles away during the explosion.
We wrapped up our time at the park at 5:30. With the drive home and a stop for dinner en route we returned to our hotel a bit after 8pm. We'll likely be in bed by 10 (at least I will likely be in bed by 10, Hawk might be later) making it easier to rise early tomorrow morning for a busy Day 3 before we have to fly home in the evening.
Vancouver, WA - Sun, 4 Sep 2022, 9:30pm
Day 2 of our three-day weekend trip to Washington has been another tiring day, much like Day 1. Today we visited Mount St. Helens National Monument. Yes, we were at Mount St. Helens on our previous trip just four weeks ago. But that was at Windy Ridge, on the east side. Today we visited the east side. Mount St. Helens is one of those awesome parks where there are multiple entrances and the only way between them is to hike. (I can only think of two others in the US like that, Pinnacles National Park and the Grand Canyon.)
Our main event at Mount St. Helens was hiking the ridge trail from the Johnston RIdge Observatory around to Devil's Point. It was 4+ miles of nonstop 360° views, including of the volcano's ravaged north face. After that we two-fer'ed the trip with a visit to Coldwater Lake, a large lake that was created 42 years ago when debris from the volcanic explosion dammed a creek. Then we three-fer'ed it with a hike on the Hummocks Trail, winding around small hills that are actually pieces of the volcano transported several miles away during the explosion.
We wrapped up our time at the park at 5:30. With the drive home and a stop for dinner en route we returned to our hotel a bit after 8pm. We'll likely be in bed by 10 (at least I will likely be in bed by 10, Hawk might be later) making it easier to rise early tomorrow morning for a busy Day 3 before we have to fly home in the evening.