Coldwater Lake Trail

We drove to the Coldwater Lake Boat Dock to hike part way along the Coldwater Lake Trail in Mt St Helens Volcanic National Monument. We hiked about 1/2 way along the lake and back for a 4.4 mile roundtrip hike with about 200 ft of overall gain. We only saw one other person on the trail this morning. View of Mt St Helens and the west end of Coldwater Lake from the Coldwater Visitor Center.

We saw lots of flowers in bloom by the parking area at the boat dock.

View of Coldwater Lake from the west end of the lake near the boat dock. The lake side trail goes along the north side of the lake.

View of Mt St Helens from a short ways up the trail.

This appears to be a hummock in the lake.

We saw some tall lupine growing along the trail.

View of the hillside to the north, shows evidence of the blast zone, with few trees growing.

Looking back to the west, along the trail.

Lots of vibrant colorful flowers along the trail.

butterfly on a lupine

Tiger lilies growing in the meadow.

The meadows were full of flowers.

We enjoyed our hike this morning, gorgeous and peaceful.

Butterfly on a tiger lily.

Parts of the trail was in the trees.

There were several stream crossings on this trail.

The monkeyflowrs grew near the stream crossings and other wet areas.

A waterfall along the trail.

This view was near where we decided to turn around today, looking towards the east end, and

looking back to the west end of the lake.

Butterfly on a pea

Part way back along the trail, there was a small section the extended into the lake, with views to the east end, and

views to the west end of the lake.

View of Mt St Helens across Coldwater Lake as we neared the trailhead.

some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail this morning.