Coldwater Peak

 We drove up to Johnston Ridge at Mt St Helens National Monument to see the wildflowers.
We stopped at the Loowitt Viewpoint for this view with the wildflowers: beautiful!












From Johnston Ridge, we hiked up to Coldwater Peak (11.5 miles round trip with an overall elevation gain of 2,450 ft).
At the beginning of the Boundary Trail, we had some nice cloudy views of Mt St Helens along with lots of wildflowers.
Here are yarrow, paintbrush and penstemon in bloom.

 view of the Boundary Trail heading southeast.

 A nice group of lupine along the trail. This was the last view of Mt St Helens we had today, before the clouds descended.

 Instead of mountain views, we enjoyed the fields of wildflowers in bloom.

 lots of strawberry blossoms

 The colors of the wildflowers popped on this cloudy, misty day.

 There were lots of ground squirrels running around.

 The thick fog in the blast zone made the landscape very eerie.

 View of St Helens Lake below the clouds

 The arch on the trail was almost obscured by the clouds as we hiked up to it.

 The rocks above St Helens Lake along the trail, felt almost mystical. This seemed like a different trail, than on clear days with grand vistas all around.

 This snowfield at the trail junction with the Coldwater Lake Trail was easily bypassed.

 Further down the Boundary Trail, we were easily able to cross this soft patch of snow.

 As we hiked up the spur trail to Coldwater Peak, we came across many pasqueflowers already gone to seed.

 View from the top of Coldwater Peak this morning.

 the old peak sign

 photo taken on the way down the Coldwater Peak spur trail, shows the damage this large boulder did falling down and tearing up the trail below.

 Better view of St Helens Lake as we hiked back

 ground squirrel hiding in a fallen log

 some bright penstemon below the trail near the arch above St Helens Lake

 arch from the east side (the trail goes through the arch)

 better view of the arch from the west side

 We could see Spirit Lake from the trail as we headed back down towards Harry's Ridge

 Fabulous wildflower hike today.













We could see the bottom of Coldwater Peak across the fields of wildflowers, but the top stayed in the clouds.











some of the many wildflowers in bloom along the trail today: