Johnston Ridge from the Hummocks Trailhead

We drove up to the Hummocks Trailhead at Mt St Helens Volcanic National Monument to hike up to Johnston Ridge, about 10 miles round trip with 1,900 ft of gain. We had the trail to ourselves until after we reached the Observatory on Johnston Ridge.View of Mt St Helens reflecting in the window at the Observatory on Johnston Ridge.

We took the short 0.9 mile leg of the Hummocks Loop Trail to the Boundary Trail. A couple of ponds were along the trail.

View of Mt St Helens from the start of the Boundary Trail at the far end of the Hummocks Loop.

Views of Mt St Helens as we hiked up the Boundary Trail.

Ground squirrel near the trail.

View from the Lowest Viewpoint:

View from near the Observatory on Johnston Ridge

Mountain goats seen below the observatory (all zoom photos):

View near the Observatory:

zoom looking into the crater

We had some great views on our hike back down the trail, before the clouds moved in

Looking back at the Lowest Viewpoint and in the distance to Coldwater Peak.

looking east to the top of Mt Adams behind another ridge

zoom of Mt Adams

view towards Coldwater Lake

some of the wildflowers seen along the trail today:

  

 

  

 

 

 

Manastash Ridge Loop via Westberg/Prater Trails

We drove out to the Manastash Ridge Trails trailhead near Thorp this morning. We made a loop hike going up Westberg Trail, headed west to come down Cheeky Bugger to Prater Trail. We saw lots of wildflowers (and the bitterroot is blooming!) and only 5 other hikers.

Most of the balsamroot at lower elevations was past peak, but were much better higher up.

Partial zoom looking across to the distant mountain peaks

zoom of Mt Stuart

View from further up the trail: paintbrush, lupine, buckwheat and groundsel in the grass.

Balsamroot, phlox, buckwheat, lupine and groundsel

Another view looking across to the distant mountain peaks to the northwest

Balsamroot, lupine and paintbrush

Balsamroot, phlox and lots of antelope bitterbrush as we get higher up the ridge

lupine, phlox and balsamroot

Oregon sunshine and lupine

View from the top of Westberg Trail

Lots of balsamroot here

Looking across the ridge to the south, the ground is covered with buckwheat, bitterroot, penstemon and

Thompson's paintbrush.

A few of the many bitterroot blossoms we saw this morning:

Heading down the Cheeky Bugger Trail, lots of wildflowers lining the trail.

Remembering to look up for the view also!

Connecting to the Prater Trail, abundant wildflowers, 

extending all the way up the ridge.

And wildflowers growing in the woods.

butterfly

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

   

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and more bitterroot: