Vulkan No. 3 - Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument / Washington

After our fantastic experience in Yellowstone National Park, which was formed by a large volcano, as well as Mount Rainier, also a volcano, we were curious about another volcano. On our way from Mount Rainier towards the Pacific, there is the St. Helens National Volcanic Monument at 2,800 meters. Of course, we wanted to go there to get a closer look.

On the internet, warnings were given about the extremely bad road to drive on. Hmm, we had already had our experiences with "roads" in various nature reserves. I would like to recall the Apache Trail in New Mexico. However, there were also, although few, voices that encouraged us to take the road.

At first, we passed through a pretty "witch forest". The trees, close together again, and the surroundings dark. In addition, trees covered with moss (or something similar) at the trunk and on the branches. It looked like fur.

The first few miles were easy to drive. But then we came to an intersection that led us to the worst road ever. The route was incredibly rough and had really deep holes in some places. In addition, the "road" was super narrow. No car should have come from the opposite direction. Someone would have had to reverse to a passing point, but they were not found behind every corner.

The holes in the "road" could only be taken at a walking pace and with a lot of feeling. And that over 18 miles - thanks! With a lot of concentration and hope that everything goes well and we arrive at the viewpoint of Mount St. Helens without any car damage, we climbed up to 1500 meters.

Before that, we had a look at Spirit Lake. A lake below the volcano, partly filled with many tree trunks in the northeast. It is said that during the last eruption of the volcano in May 1980, so much rubble came out of the volcano that the level of the lake rose by 300 meters and the increased water level washed the living and already dead tree trunks lying on the shore into the lake, where they have been since then in the northeastern corner of the lake. Here, there are said to be about 350,000 specimens. Apparently, the wind mainly coming from the direction of the volcano compresses the trunks there, so that the area does not "dissolve". Due to the relatively cool temperature of the water, the tree trunks rot very slowly.

Although Spirit Lake with the tree trunks is special, we also wanted to get close to the volcano. Until May 1980, the crater was round. With the eruption, a large part of the round crater collapsed and thus opened the inside. Today, we could still see a smoking spot and a waterfall that is still connected to the boiling interior.

The crater of Mount St. Helens remains impressive, with its peak sometimes showing itself with, sometimes without clouds. In order to get a better all-round view, we had to go to Windy Ridge View Point and climb a steep staircase with 378 steps. Here we had a beautiful all-round view. The Spirit Lake on the right, the volcano on the left. Simply magnificent. When do you see something comparable????

However, the way back, before which we already had our concerns, turned out to be easier because we asked arriving rangers at the viewpoint at St. Helens how to get down without having to drive the bad road again. They showed us a well-paved road that was not as car-unfriendly as the road up. By the way, the ranger did not know this road that we drove up, or has never driven it... but we did 😊