Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument

May 31, 2025

I have hiked here many times including numerous trips to the Ape Caves (2 mile lava tube), but it has been over 15 years since I was on the north side of the mountain. The road and observatory near the crater is closed due to a land slide and will not open for at least another year so I had to visit on the slopes. I hiked half the length of Coldwater Lake which is cold and beautiful. The lake was encouraged to form as a release from Spirit Lake after the eruption in 1980. The creek which was the normal outflow from Spirit Lake was covered in ash, so a tunnel was drilled to allow water to flow out to this ash covered basin forming the lake by 1981. Evidence of the eruption is getting harder to see at this elevation, but it is still evident with Hummock Island made of thick layers of ash. As a bonus, wildflowers were in abundance on the hike including lupine, penstomen, corydalis and paintbrush.