Hiking Mt. St. Helen

Just an hour drive from where we camped, we arrived at the first Mt. St. Helen lookout. Even before the lookout, the destructive event and aftermath from St. Helen eruption 30+ years ago was hard to miss. You are looking at mother nature still trying to recover 30 years after every bit of life was wiped out in hundreds of thousands of square miles. It gave me chills. What brightens up the lifeless is the blooming wild flowers, creating such contrast.

Kept on driving towards Windy Ridge, a visitor's center and a head of Windy Ridge hiking trail, we saw clouds obstructing the view of the famous St. Helen. Parked at the visitor's parking lot, we started to hike up. Half way through the hike, you get a better view of the clear side of the Spirit Lake. I say clear side, because the other side is till this day covered in layers of dead burnt timbers from the blast.

life among the dead

Another 10 min up the hill, the trail makes a right turn and reveals our first full view of Mt. St. Helen. You would notice the left side of the mountain is still snow-covered, while the right side (the blasted side) has a giant crater in the middle of it.

After Windy Ridge, we made our way back to the car and drove to Harmony trail, which would lead us all the way down to the Spirit Lake to see the dead trees floating on the water. The first half of the trail was surrounded by lush growth of bushes and young trees that provided much needed shade. Once you descent to the valley floor, there's barely any shade. All you see if wild flowers among dead trees on either side of a sandy trail.

The view of the dead trees covered half of the lake takes your breath away. So does getting down to the water. We jumped from parched logs to parched logs. The water is crystal clear.