No other hike in Washington drops you into a recovering blast zone still showing new life

What St. Helens left behind

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens exploded with the force of 500 nuclear bombs.

It killed 57 people, swallowed 150 square miles of old-growth forest, and shaved more than 1,300 feet off its own summit.

What’s left is 110,000 acres of raw, recovering landscape in southwest Washington’s Gifford Pinchot National Forest, and it’s been drawing scientists, hikers, and the simply curious ever since.

The Cowlitz Indian Tribe has called this mountain Lawilátɬa for generations. You’ll understand why it holds that kind of weight the moment you see it.

Nature didn’t wait to be invited back

Scientists thought it would take centuries. They were wrong.

Within a few years of the eruption, pocket gophers that had survived underground started mixing dead ash with healthy soil, and plants followed.

Today, in summer, purple lupine and red Indian paintbrush spread across the pumice plains in broad sweeping patches. Elk herds of up to 300 animals move through the blast zone in fall, grazing on willow and paintbrush.

What was once bare gray ash has become one of the most important ecological study sites in the country.

The visitor center got its first real makeover since Reagan

The Mount St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake reopened in May 2025 after its first major renovation since 1986.

The new exhibits were built in partnership with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, and for the first time, the eruption story gets told with tribal perspectives included.

You can stand inside a walk-in volcano model, trigger an interactive seismograph, and watch an updated feature film. More than 80 historic artifacts fill the space.

The center sits five miles east of I-5 in Castle Rock, opens daily, and costs $5 for adults.

Coldwater Lake rose from a debris field

Before May 18, 1980, Coldwater Lake didn’t exist. The eruption’s debris avalanche buried Coldwater Creek and the water backed up behind it.

Now the lake sits there, emerald-colored and quiet, ringed by forest growing back on the slopes above.

While Johnston Ridge Observatory remains closed from a 2023 landslide, the Science and Learning Center at Coldwater at milepost 43 on SR 504 serves as the main facility on the west side.

Hands-on exhibits, a 20-minute film, and the short accessible Winds of Change Trail all start here.

The Hummocks look like hills but they’re something else

What you’re walking through on the Hummocks Trail is the remains of the largest landslide in recorded history.

The eruption sent a wall of volcanic debris roaring down the mountain, and it piled up in mounds across the valley floor. Before 1980, old-growth forest covered this ground.

Now it’s a 2.5-mile loop through grassy humps, small ponds, and young stands of alder and willow. Beavers, frogs, and dozens of bird species have moved in.

The trailhead is at milepost 45.2 on SR 504, with only 250 feet of elevation gain total.

Five miles from the crater at Windy Ridge

On the east side of the monument, Windy Ridge puts you closer to the crater than anywhere else you can drive.

From the parking area, a 368-step sand ladder climbs to a viewpoint above Spirit Lake, where you can see the crater, the pumice plains, and on clear days, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount Hood lined up across the horizon.

Rangers give eruption talks at the amphitheater on summer weekends.

One thing to know: the sand ladder is open weekends and federal holidays only through 2027 while construction continues.

Spirit Lake still carries the wreckage from 1980

Before the eruption, Spirit Lake had camps, cabins, and clear water. The landslide slammed into it so hard the water surged 600 feet up the northern banks.

When everything settled, the lake sat 200 feet higher, choked with debris and thousands of toppled trees. The floating log mat is still out there, and it’s one of the first things you notice from Windy Ridge.

Harry R. Truman, an 83-year-old lodge owner and World War I veteran, refused every evacuation order. The debris buried him there.

The Harmony Falls Trail on the northeastern shore is the only public path down to the water.

Ape Cave goes dark and cold underground

At 2.5 miles, Ape Cave on the south side of the monument is the third longest lava tube in North America.

It formed about 2,000 years ago when lava flowing down the mountain’s southern flank cooled on the outside and kept moving on the inside, leaving a hollow channel behind.

The lower cave is a 0.75-mile walk where you’ll pass the “Meatball,” a block of cooled lava jammed in the ceiling. The upper cave is a 1.5-mile scramble over 27 boulder piles and an 8-foot lava fall.

The cave holds at 42 degrees year-round, so bring a jacket regardless of the season. Timed reservations run May through October via recreation.gov.

Lava Canyon shows what’s under all the soil

The 1980 mudflow that tore through Lava Canyon on the south side didn’t just strip away trees. It stripped away centuries of accumulated soil and exposed ancient lava formations thousands of years old.

You can walk a short paved section at the start that’s wheelchair accessible, or follow the lower trail down into steeper, rougher terrain.

Nearby, the Trail of Two Forests is a boardwalk loop past lava casts, the three-dimensional imprints left by trees that got swallowed by a flow 2,000 years ago.

June Lake Trail leads to a waterfall at the base of a basalt cliff.

The crater rim is a long climb with no technical gear required

Mount St. Helens is one of the most accessible volcano summits in Washington.

The Monitor Ridge Route from Climbers Bivouac gains 4,500 feet over five miles and reaches the crater rim at 8,365 feet. No ropes or technical gear required, but plan for seven to 13 hours round trip.

From the rim, you look directly down into a horseshoe-shaped crater where Crater Glacier has been growing since the eruption. A climbing permit is required year-round above 4,800 feet.

The Mount St. Helens Institute runs guided summit trips for those who want experienced company.

The wildlife came back and kept coming

Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer, mountain goats, and black bears all roam the blast zone now.

Birds nest in the dead standing trees left from 1980, what ecologists call snags, and populations have largely recovered across the area.

Western toads, struggling in much of the Pacific Northwest, have done well here with few predators and more ponds than they had before.

In summer, lupine, fireweed, Indian paintbrush, and wild strawberries line nearly every trail.

By late summer, huckleberries ripen along the Boundary Trail and Mount Margaret Backcountry, and you can eat them straight off the bush.

The mountain is still being watched closely

The USGS monitors Mount St. Helens around the clock because it’s still one of the most active volcanoes in the Cascade Range.

Between 2004 and 2008, it erupted quietly, building a new lava dome inside the crater without the explosive force of 1980.

Crater Glacier, which didn’t exist before the eruption, has grown around that dome and keeps moving. Cell service across most of the monument is almost nonexistent, so download your maps before you leave the highway.

The three access roads on the west, south, and east sides don’t connect to each other, with two or more hours of driving between them.

Visit Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Washington

You can reach the west side via SR 504 from I-5 Exit 49 in Castle Rock, about 70 miles north of Portland and 150 miles south of Seattle.

The south side comes in through Cougar on WA-503, and the east side via FR 25 from Randle. The Mount St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake is open daily at $5 for adults.

A National Forest Recreation Pass costs $5 per day on the south and east sides. America the Beautiful passes are accepted throughout.

Most trails and sites open mid-May through October, weather depending.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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