Loowit Falls and Windy Ridge from Johnston Ridge

Got up early to see the sunrise at Mt St Helens Volcanic National Monument.

 Quick stop to get a photo from the Loowit Viewpoint just before Johnston Ridge.
We decided we would hike from Johnston Ridge to Loowit Falls then over to Windy Ridge up to the viewpoint on the ridge, then back to Johnston Ridge for a 21 mile hike with an overall elevation gain of about 3,900 ft.

 From Johnston Ridge, we headed east of the Boundary #1 Trail. The wildflowers are starting to bloom.

 The views of Mt St Helens from the Boundary Trail are stunning.

 It was fun to watch the rising sun change the colors on Mt St Helens

 Where the trail begins to go out on the steep ridge to Devil's Corner, we found a warning and a sign recommending to use a new trail segment that bypasses this exposed area. So we opted to take the new section. No views of Mt St Helens from this new trail.

 Once the new trail joined the old trail, we could see Mt St Helena again.

 After 2+ miles, we headed down the Truman Trail for about 3 miles.

 We passed some pretty ponds.

 We crossed several small streams,














and hiked towards Mt St Helens with wildflowers in bloom.

We left the Truman Trail to take the Willow Springs Trail (1 mile) to the Loowit Trail for 1 mile heading east.












We saw a herd of elk traveling in front of Mt St Helens,

I tried to get a couple of pictures with the zoom on my camera, but they were pretty far away.

The Loowit Falls Trail branches off of the Loowit Trail for 0.6 miles

 View of Loowit Falls (186 ft drop) from the end of the trail.

Looking north-north east from Loowit Falls: Johnston Ridge, Harry's Ridge, Coldwater Peak, the Dome, Mt Margaret, Spirit Lake, Mt Rainier, Windy Ridge, Mt Adams

 We returned down the Loowit Falls Trail (0.6 miles) to the Loowit Trail heading another mile further east. As the trail winds up and down and around ridges, we felt close to the north edge of the crater.

 There were several creek crossings, and we were careful not to go over any snow bridges.

 We had great views of Spirit Lake and the surrounding peaks and ridges.

We took the Windy Trail (about 1 mile) that connects the Loowit Trail to the Truman Trail. There are still many patches of snow along the way.











Here the Truman Trail becomes part of a dirt service road going up the east side of a large ridge to the parking area by Windy Ridge.











It's 2 miles up this dirt road to the parking area at Windy Ridge. We would lose sight of Mt St Helens, but we had views to the east including Mt Adams (not pictured here), Mt Hood and the ridges around Smith Creek. Down below, we saw another herd of elk resting on a meadow. There are also several waterfalls draining into Smith Creek.

zoom of Mt Hood to the south.

After crossing the empty parking lot at Windy Ridge (the FSRs on the east side are still closed due to winter conditions), we took the 439 steps up Windy Ridge.

Pano looking east to south from the top of the steps: Mt Adams, Mt Hood, Mt St Helens, Spirit Lake

A little further along Windy Ridge is a viewpoint Pano looking south to northwest from here: Mt St Helens, Spirit Lake, Harry's Ridge, Coldwater Peak, the Dome, Mt Margaret and Mt Rainier

 We then returned down Windy Ridge taking the Truman Trail for 6 miles back up to the Boundary #1 Trail.

We had some larger streams to cross on this section of the Truman Trail,












including a washed out section of the trail here.

 The views are gorgeous down on the Pumice Plain. Spirit Lake on one side and Mt St Helens on the other. In the late afternoon, the clouds started to gather over Mt St Helens.

After reaching the Boundary #1 Trail, we talked to other hikers who had done the section of the trail going around Devil's Elbow. The trail sounded to be in the same condition as last year, so we opted to return that way, 2.5 miles back to our original trailhead.

Pano to the south from Devil's Elbow:

The narrow, exposed trail along the Boundary #1 Trail to the west of Devil's Elbow

We saw a number of frogs in the streams and in pools of water from melting snow and this baby snake on the trail.

We also saw this hairy spider.

Some of the wildflowers blooming along the trail today: