Coldwater Peak

On a beautiful sunny day after a week of rain, we were ready to go hiking. We headed down to Johnston Ridge at Mt St Helens Volcanic National Monument to hike up to Coldwater Peak, (about 11.7 miles round trip with 2,400 ft of gain overall). The views were fabulous, but the wind gusts were much stronger than what was predicted.

View of Mt St Helens from the Boundary Trail on our way towards Harry Ridge.

On the boundary  trail heading up to St Helens Lake, below is Mt Adams, Spirit Lake, Mt Hood, Harry's Ridge and Mt St Helens.

We saw several groups of elk along our hike and a large herd. I was able to get one "decent" zoom photo of this bull elk (it is fuzzy).

We saw quite a bit of hoar frost on the trail today, Mt Hood and Mt St Helens 

View of St Helens Lake, Mt Rainier beginning to peek out over the ridge

View of Coldwater Peak from the trail above St Helens Lake

I love that a the trail goes through this rock arch high above St Helens Lake

View of Mt Adams through the rock arch. There were some icicles hanging down from the arch.

On the boundary trail, after the junction with the Coldwater Lake Trail, looking across St Helens Lake towards Mt Adams

From the boundary trail, a .75 mile spur trail leads up Coldwater Peak. I love this view of Mt St Helens between these pointy ridges. Mt Hood in the distance

There was some snow on the trail up Coldwater Peak, it was beginning to melt as we hiked back down.

We saw large ice chunks falling of these cliffs on Coldwater Peak, we made sure to hike quickly by when we were underneath them.

View of Mt Hood and Mt St Helens as we neared the top of Coldwater Peak

View of Mt Rainier as we neared the top of Coldwater Peak

On top of Coldwater Peak: view to the west, Coldwater Lake below, we also saw some distant snow capped Olympic Mountains to the northwest.

View of Mt Rainier (left) and the Goat Rocks (right) from on top of Coldwater Peak.

zoom of Mt Rainier

There were some icy plants and tree limbs on Coldwater Peak today.

The views coming back on this trail are as gorgeous as coming up! Mt Adams, St Helens Lake and Spirit Lake 

zoom of Mt Adams

At one of the switchbacks coming down from Coldwater Peak, we saw two mountain goats (right center of photo) in this view of Mt St Helens

zoom of the mountain goats

Mt Rainier as we continue down Colwater Peak

It was so windy on top of Coldwater Peak, we waited until we were almost back to the junction with the Coldwater Lake Trail to find a spot off trail to take our lunch break. Looking up at Coldwater Peak from the boundary trail.

View of Mt Adams through a hole in a stump

More views as we continue hiking back down the trail:

 

Staircase Rapids Loop

I drove out to Staircase at Olympic National Park to hike the Staircase Rapid Trail (a 2 mile loop trail) and hike part way up the North Fork of the Skokomish River. Even though I checked that the roads and trail were open the night before, I found this down tree blocking the road. I drove back about 100 feet to a pull out and decided to hike up from where I parked. There was no one in the Staircase area of the park while I was there. I decided to just do the Staircase Loop and not risk trees falling down further up the North Fork of the Skokomish Trail.

I decided to do the loop clockwise. View upstream of the North Fork of the Skokomish river from the bridge on the road.

View downstream from the bridge

Beautiful forest walk, lots of mossy trees,

and some fall color.

A big cedar

some of the trees along the trail

Snow on nearby peaks

view of the Skokomish River from a side trail

Lots of ferns, moss and running water along the side of the trail.

Skokomish River from another side trail

more trees along the trail and river views

zoom

Enjoying the forest, moss and large boulders

Suspension view over the Skokomish River

view across the river to the east

View downstream  from the suspension bridge

View upstream from the suspension bridge, including a rainbow

View of the suspension bridge from downstream

More lovely trees

This log bridge didn't make it all the way across the creek

Lots of water beside the trail and

same water on the trail.

Beautiful tree beside the creek

Log bridge over Slate Creek

view downstream along Slate Creek

Something appears to be nibbling on the bridge (LOL)

View of the log bridge from a bit downstream