Mount St. Helens Day Trip

   

C and I lived in Washington for a few months in between the time we graduated from BYU in December 2014 and the time he started professional school in Arizona in August 2015. During this time, we got to visit many different parts of Washington and enjoy living in such a beautiful state.

One of our favorite places that we visited was Mount St. Helens, the infamous mountain known for its volcano that erupted in 1980. It was only a 3 hour drive from where we were living, so it was a very do-able day trip for such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We normally only drive to places that are 1 to 2 hours away as its hard to travel long distance with a baby, but this trip was totally worth it!

Let me just say, driving from the west park entrance of Mount St. Helens into the valley at the base of caldera, was AMAZING! The blast in 1980 had leveled hundreds of acres of forest and had dumped hundreds of tons of soil onto the valley beneath it. As you drive into the park, you see that the landscape is pretty much the same as it was after the eruption in 1980. There was much of the mountain that was still bare, and on the mountains outside of the volcano, hundreds of leveled trees looked like spilled toothpicks in the distance. It was awe-inspiring, fascinating, and somewhat eerie, all at the same time.

Cameron and I first stopped at the Weyerhouser free visitor's center, which had a very impressive museum. They had a moving video and exhibit that demonstrated what it was like for people who had been caught in the volcano's eruption and what was being done by Weyerhouser after the eruption to harvest the fallen trees. We had a picnic in the sun (notable, because there are hardly any sunny days in Washington), and enjoyed the cool summer day. Ella enjoyed playing in the grass, but didn't know what to think about it at first.

Outside of the visitor's center was a small hill in which you could climb for a scenic view. From there, we could see how the volcano had caused a giant landslide into this valley. Now, a river snakes through the new land and is home to wandering elk.

After leaving the visitor's center, we reached Johnston Ridge Observatory, named after the scientist killed on the ridge during the eruption. We didn't have much time at the observatory's museum, but instead, we spent our time hiking. There are miles of trails along the base of the volcano and up onto the volcano itself. My husband had hiked up to the top of the caldera when he was in Boy Scouts, but that was a multi-day hike. We only had time for about a 5 mile roundtrip hike, so we chose to start on the Boundary Trail #1 from the Johnston Ridge Observatory towards the Truman Trail #207.

Our led us east of the observatory up onto a ridge where we could see into the caldera better. It was very scenic along the path: towards the east was a hillside covered in red flowers and fallen trees, remnants of the 1980's blast, and towards the south was Mount St. Helens, in all its natural glory.

Eventually, the trail led to the side of a steep mountain with a narrow trail snaking along its edge, a section of the path called Devil's Elbow. We started to take it and maybe went 1/4 mile on it, but I was afraid of its sheer gravely drop offs (I'm not afraid of heights, but I kind of am), and how late it was getting, so we decided to turn back.

On our way towards Mount St. Helens, we had seen a little mom & pop restaurant called Patty's Place in Toutle, WA that advertised good ole' American food and Elk Burgers. We decided to stop there on our way back home and try an Elk Burger for ourselves for dinner. They were a little pricey, so we split one and had a peach cobbler. We sat on porch outside and overlooked the river below. It was a very beautiful evening with a slightly chilly breeze (summer can still be cold in Washington!), but it felt great to sit down and enjoy the evening after hiking. The food was great, and the elk was a tastier, leaner version of beef. Inside the restaurant were pictorial memorials to Harry Truman, the grumpy old man famous for defying authorities and staying in his home with his cats  during the eruption instead of evacuating. We left Toutle and made it home by midnight!

Overall, we had an amazing trip to Mount St. Helens, one that I would easily travel across the country for if we had the opportunity! We had actually gone into the wrong entrance to the park (there are multiple, and they don't connect, so choose wisely lol). We had meant to visit the Ape Caves (a series of underground tunnels carved out by the flowing lava of the volcano) which is on the south side of the mountain, but didn't realize that we would have had to drive another few hours to get there. Looking back, it worked out really well for us, and we had a fun time anyways. We will have to save the Ape Caves for another trip. ;)