Washington’s most violent volcano blew its top in 1980 and it’s still not done

The volcano that rewrote America’s landscape

Fifty miles northeast of Portland, a volcano tore itself apart in 1980 and took 57 lives with it.

What’s left is 110,000 acres of scorched ridges, newborn lakes, ancient lava tubes, and forest coming back from nothing. Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument isn’t a polished park.

It’s a landscape still in motion, and the closer you get to the crater, the more that becomes clear.

The Cowlitz called it “one from whom smoke comes”

Long before Captain George Vancouver gave it an English name in 1792, the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and the Yakama Nation knew this mountain well.

They called it Lawetlat’la, meaning “one from whom smoke comes,” and it holds a place on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property. That name turned out to be more than fitting.

On May 18, 1980, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake triggered the collapse of the volcano’s north face, setting off the largest landslide in recorded history.

A mountain that lost 1,300 feet in about two minutes

The numbers from the 1980 eruption are hard to put together in your head.

The blast flattened nearly 150 square miles of forest and blew more than 1,300 feet off the summit in a matter of minutes. Fifty-seven people died.

The eruption sent ash across 11 states. The Congress established the monument in 1982, managed by the U.S. Forest Service, specifically for research, education, and recreation.

Four decades later, the landscape is still visibly piecing itself back together.

Drop into the third longest lava tube in North America

Two and a half miles of hollow rock run beneath the forest on the volcano’s south side.

Ape Cave formed roughly 1,900 to 2,000 years ago when basaltic lava flowed downhill and the outer layer hardened while the molten interior drained away.

Inside, it stays 42 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, and the dark is absolute. Bring at least two light sources per person.

The lower route runs about three-quarters of a mile and works well for families.

The upper route stretches 1.5 miles and requires scrambling over rock piles and scaling an eight-foot lava wall. Timed reservations are required from May 18 through Oct. 31.

Climb 368 steps and look straight into the crater

Windy Ridge sits five miles from the volcano, the closest point you can reach by car.

A sand ladder with 368 steps takes you to a viewpoint where the crater sits directly across from you, and Spirit Lake spreads out below. That lake still carries a floating mat of logs swept into it during the eruption.

From the ridge, you can watch the pumice plains and bare hillsides slowly going green again, season by season. Rangers run eruption talks at the Windy Ridge amphitheater during summer months.

Waterfalls pour over lava that’s 2,000 years old

The mudflows from the 1980 eruption carved Lava Canyon deep enough to expose volcanic rock that had been buried for 2,000 years.

The trail on the southeast side of the monument leads you down into that canyon past waterfalls dropping over columnar basalt. The first section is paved and leads to a viewpoint anyone can reach.

Past that, the trail gets steep and rough. The suspension bridge is currently closed due to cable damage, so plan for an out-and-back.

Stay on the trail here; the water moves fast and people have died near the falls.

Five miles to the rim, 4,500 feet straight up

Mount St. Helens draws beginning and experienced mountaineers alike because the most popular summit route, Monitor Ridge, is strenuous but non-technical.

The climb gains 4,500 feet over five miles and tops out at the crater rim at 8,365 feet. Most people complete the round trip in seven to 12 hours.

You need to be in good shape and comfortable on steep, loose ground. From April 1 through Oct. 31, daily quotas apply and permits must be purchased in advance.

Winter permits are free and self-issued at the trailhead. The crater itself is off-limits, always.

Coldwater Lake did not exist before 1980

The eruption’s debris flow buried Coldwater Creek and the lake backed up behind it. Today that accident of destruction is a calm body of water where elk show up along the shoreline, especially in fall.

The Birth of a Lake Trail is a short boardwalk loop with interpretive signs explaining how the whole thing happened.

If you want more distance, the Lakes Trail runs nine miles out and back with elevated views above the water and through the recovering forest. Only non-motorized boats go out on Coldwater Lake.

Walk across material that was once the mountain’s summit

The Hummocks Trail loops about 2.5 miles through terrain that looks like someone buried a field of hills overnight. That’s essentially what happened.

The 1980 debris avalanche deposited the material that forms these mounds, some of it from the summit itself before it collapsed. The trail is mostly flat and loaded with interpretive signs.

Ponds and wildflowers have moved into the low spots between the hummocks, and wildlife has followed. On a clear day, you get a direct view of the volcano from the trail.

Two forests separated by 2,000 years, side by side

Near Ape Cave on the monument’s south side, a short boardwalk loop passes through two completely different forests growing right next to each other. One is old-growth Douglas fir and western red cedar.

The other grew in the footprint of an ancient lava flow that swallowed the original trees two millennia ago.

Where those trees stood, you can still see their imprints in the hardened lava, three-dimensional casts left behind when the wood burned away. The trail is accessible and family-friendly.

You need a Northwest Forest Pass or a five-dollar day-use fee.

Spirit Lake still carries the trees the eruption threw in

Before 1980, Spirit Lake had campgrounds, lodges and old-growth forest down to the waterline. The eruption’s debris avalanche hit the lake hard enough to raise the surface by roughly 200 feet.

Decades later, a floating log mat still covers portions of the water.

The Harmony Falls Trail drops 1.2 miles one way to the lakeshore, but the climb back out is steep, so pace yourself on the way down. The land around the lake is fragile and still recovering, so stay on the trail.

Snow season opens a different side of the monument

When snow covers the lower slopes, the monument shifts into a different kind of place.

The Marble Mountain and Cougar Sno-Parks on the south side connect you to a network of trails for snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling through the forest at the base of the volcano.

The Mount St. Helens Institute runs guided snowshoe hikes to places like June Lake, where a frozen waterfall sits within view of the crater. A Washington State Sno-Park permit is required from Dec. 1 through March 31.

Winter summit climbs are open to experienced mountaineers; permits are free and self-issued at the trailhead.

Before you go: one road is out and won’t reopen until 2027

Johnston Ridge Observatory, the monument’s most visited facility, has been closed since a landslide destroyed part of State Route 504 in May 2023.

A new bridge is expected by fall 2026, but the observatory itself may not reopen until 2027. The good news: most of the monument is still fully accessible from the south and east sides.

The Science and Learning Center at Coldwater and the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake are open with exhibits and ranger programs.

A National Forest Recreation Pass runs five dollars per vehicle per day, or $30 annually.

Visit Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in Washington

You can reach the south side of the monument through Cougar via State Route 503 and Forest Road 83, which takes you to Ape Cave, Lava Canyon, and the Trail of Two Forests.

The east side is accessed from Randle off Highway 12 via Forest Roads 25 and 99, leading to Windy Ridge and the Spirit Lake viewpoints. The monument headquarters is on Amboy Road in Amboy, Washington.

Check the official website for current trail conditions, permit availability, and reservation windows before you go.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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