Mount Margaret via Norway Pass

We drove down to the east side of Mt St Helens National Monument to hike to Mount Margaret via the Norway Pass Trailhead. This is an 11 mile round trip hike with 2,800 ft of gain in the Mount Margaret Backcountry. This trail meanders up, across and over several ridges, giving a variety of views. There were lots of wildflowers along the way.

The first 2-1/4 miles of the trail leading to Norway Pass are in the forest, but there are several places with views along the way. Here we saw Meta Lake and Mt Adams.

We saw several patches of avalanche lilies in the shaded areas, evidence of recent snow melt.

View at Norway Pass, there is a lot of timber from eruption of Mt St Helens 40 years ago floating in Spirit Lake.

From Norway Pass, the trail makes a large U shaped turn before turning back up to Bear Pass. Here there was stonecrop and paintbrush in bloom.

Another view of Mt Adams, rosy spirea in bloom.

The trail crosses on a narrow rock ledge, some people have dropped down the scree field to by pass this section.

Looking down towards Norway Pass, penstemon in bloom.

A short ways before Bear Pass, we stopped for a break and enjoyed this expansive view from Mt Adams to Mt St Helens.

Past Bear Pass, as the trail continued along these ridges, we could see Mt Adams, Mt Hood and a very faint and hazy Mt Jefferson.

Paintbrush and fleabane in bloom

Further along, we could see Mount Margaret and Mount Teragram across the way.

After passing Bear Camp, we took a short boot track to a view looking north to Mt Rainier and the Goat Rocks in the distance, Holmstead and Boot Lakes below. 

There were several patches of snow on the trail and one long snow field across Mount Teragram. The snow was soft, most hikers were comfortable in their boots, but I felt better wearing micro spikes here.

View of Mount Margaret after hiking around Mount Teragram. The spur trail up Mount Margaret is on the other side.

Quite a bit of the beargrass had their blossoms eaten off the stalks, here we saw some still in bloom below the trail.

A patch of arnica, Mt Hood in the far distance.

A large herd of elk below Mount Margaret.

As we went around Mount Margaret, we could see Coldwater Peak and St Helens Lake to the southwest.

Pano to the south from up on Mount Margaret

We found several rock outcroppings to take a break on atop Mount Margaret.

zoom of Mt Adams

The highest point on Mount Margaret, Mt Rainier in the distance.

zoom of Mt Rainier

field of pussytoes on Mount Margaret

We saw lots of strawberry blossoms all along the trail, these will be ripe in a few weeks

As we started down from Mount Margaret, we noticed the sky was less hazy and it was a bit easier to see Mt Hood in the distance.

zoom of Mt Adams

Nice view from Mount Margaret of Mount Teragram and the trail winding over and around the ridges.

View of the larger snowfield on the side of Mount Teragram we crossed, on the way back the snow was softer.

The trail across the rock ledge above Norway Pass seemed less daunting in this direction.

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