Mount St. Helens – If you are old enough, you probably remember that famous volcanic eruption back in 1981…  That area now is a huge park with four visitor centers and many miles of hiking trails covering a variety of terrain and environment. 

The area is absolutely beautiful.   Unfortunately, our trip here was in mid-2020 (Yep-Corona Virus- yuck!!!!).  So, we were able to do some great hikes but we found that all the park’s visitor centers were closed.  

 If you are old enough, you probably remember that famous volcanic eruption back in 1981…  That area now is a huge park with four visitor centers and many miles of hiking trails covering a variety of terrain and environment. 

The area is absolutely beautiful.   Unfortunately, our trip here was in mid-2020 (Yep-Corona Virus- yuck!!!!).  So, we were able to do some great hikes but we found that all the park’s visitor centers were closed.  

 Here are the trails that we hiked at Mount St. Helens…….

1. Your first stop on this hiking adventure is to visit the Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center, if this is closed you can still walk around the beautiful boardwalk through the trees and lilies.  This is an easy hike but kinda steep.  Should take about 20 minutes for the loop hike.  
2.  Next stop is to drive over a bridge on your way to the Forest Learning Center (how far along the road is this?), this is the edge of the blast zone, and it’s worth stopping off to take a quick peek.  There is an interpretive sign there that you can read which tells about the eruption and how it devasted 150,000 acres of private and national forests.
3. Driving further you reach the Forest Learning CenterForest Learning Center.  It was closed due to COVID but there is a little known hike just beside this center which winds its way down hill through a (often misty) rain forest area.    We think this is one of the most beautiful short hikes you can do at Mt. St. Helens.  On this morning the fog was everywhere and it very mystical drifting through the trees.  The distance for this hike is only about 3/4 mile roundtrip, it does have a bit of somewhat steep terrain but well worth the hike.

4.  From the Forest Learning Center continue on down the 504 road you will come to the next visitor center called Johnston Ridge Observatory.    Across the road and to the south of this visitor center, you will find a small parking lot and a trailhead for the Hummocks Trail – No. 229.  This trail is a relatively easy 2.5 mile trail.  It covers surprising amount of different environments along this hike – check out our video and some of the pictures here.  We loved this trail because you could see where the volcano blew huge pieces of the mountainside miles down river where they ended up here – they are called Hummocks!.  Some are small and some are very big.  Some have no vegetation yet and some have lots of trees and even small ponds in between.   It’s a really beautiful hike with a lot of variety.  There are even some interpretive signs along the way – be sure to grab a pamphlet at the trailhead.  Take your time and enjoy this trail!  Here are a few pictures to the right from your hike through here.