Cathedral Falls

 We drove out south of Riffe Lake in Lewis County to hike to Cathedral Falls. This trail is in the very northern most part of Mt St Helens National Volcanic Monument.
Cathedral Falls is 1.1 miles along the Goat Creek Trail. We hiked 2.2 miles roundtrip with about 200 ft of overall gain.
The trailhead is at the end of Forest Service Road 2750.

 A short distance down the trail, there is a boot track that leads to a view point. This forest was protected from the 1980 blast by the hills to the south.











We found some wildflowers in bloom along this heavily forested trail

A little ways down the trail is a small cave.

 There were two small stream crossings along the trail.

 First view of Cathedral Falls (248 ft drop). With the light amount of water in the falls today and the light breeze, the water seemed to disappear before reaching the ground when we first arrived.

 The trail continues behind the falls


















There is a good sized cave behind the falls

Watching the water bounce off a boulder below the falls from the trail behind the waterfall

We continued a short ways down the trail and found a boot path out for a nice view of Cathedral Falls from the other side

Lots of woodpecker holes on this tree.

 Some of the wildflowers we saw in bloom along the trail today: