|
Mt. St. Helens: Loowit Falls
(click once on any photo to display full image) |
Mt. St. Helens
Oregon has always been on our
list of places that we wanted to visit. With the overcrowding of the national
parks and the fact that we have already been to most of the major ones, this
year seemed liked an opportune time. Mt. Hood was the focus, but we also
decided to sneak in a visit to Mt. St. Helens given it’s close proximity.
Although Li made a quick stop at the visitor center after seeing me off on my
coast to coast bicycle trip in 2007, he hadn’t done any hiking at that time,
and I had never been there yet.
Loowit Falls
On our first day at Mt. St.
Helens we hiked to Loowit Falls, a waterfall near the base of the crater. The
weather was cold and overcast and even though we encountered some rain on the
way back, it was still worthwhile. The hike started from the visitor center and
descended onto a pumice plain with Spirit Lake in the background (photo on
left). A trail sign showed the way to Loowit Falls with Mt. St. Helens obscured
in the clouds (photo on right).
The trail ended with a view of
Loowit Falls.
We took a couple more photos of
Spirit Lake on the way back.
The photo on the left is near the end of our hike looking back towards the visitor center (the building is on top of the second mountain from the left on the ridge in the background). The photo on the right is a view of Mt. St. Helens from outside the visitor center after our hike – although the sun was trying to peek out, the clouds still hadn’t lifted yet.
|
|
|
|
