Seaquest (2)

This stay is a do over from when we breezed through a couple of years ago. Our purpose was to explore Mt. Saint Helens and we allowed three nights for this. It was a straightforward drive from Skokomish, moving from 101 to I5 along the way. We arrived a little after noon and were able to pull right into our empty site. We have noted many times on this trip that early departures, like rolling between 9 and 10, work best for us. We have kept the mileage between campgrounds to well under 200, so that gets us to the next stop with time to do an initial exploration. We also tend to avoid afternoon highway wind, and that is a super bonus.

We walked over from the campground to the Visitor Center, which is all devoted to telling the story of Mount Saint Helens. You would think that the park would be located close to the mountain, given all the focus on it, but it is actually over 50 miles away. When you watch the movies depicting the eruption in 1980, it starts to make sense that they would not build anything close to the volcano. As such, you’re looking at a lot of driving if you want to go check things out. The visitor center does a good job explaining the geologic forces at work, and also shows some jaw dropping footage. It’s funny, since I remember when it happened, being in high school at the time, I had it filed away in my brain as sort of “recent.” The math says this was 44 years ago, and that’s a bit sobering. My childhood memories are becoming more historic by the day.

We took a short marshlands trail just outside the visitor center which offers lovely boardwalk strolling with the mountain looming in the background. I admired the pond lilies, and sighed about my deceased pond lily. My raccoon friends are now outside pets I guess, because they are coming to bathe and frolic most nights. I need to name them.

We still had some time before dinner to get in some steps, so we walked the trails around the campground. It’s a pretty place, with tons of ferns and wildflowers. The trails aren’t anything to rave about, but they’re pretty and will get you a couple miles.

The next day we spent getting to and exploring Ape Cave. It’s an over 70 mile drive, down 5 and over on 503, just to get there. We had thought about maybe adding some biking or kayaking to the day, but really the drive takes up a big part of the day and the caves take time to go through. Also, 503 would not be that fun to bike.

The Ape Cave is a lava tube with a lower section and an upper section that you can hike. The lower section is easy, with a mostly flat surface to walk on, no obstacles to climb, and plenty of headroom until you get to the end. It’s about 3/4 of a mile one way and pretty darn cold. I wore my down jacket and gloves over the top of a fleece and was comfortable.  I was happy to do the lower tunnel and would say, as long as you can manage a steep metal staircase to get in and out, just about anyone can do that one.

The upper tunnel is a different story. We read reviews ahead of time and I had already tapped out before the trail description was finished. There are 27 boulder obstacles you have to scramble over, which means you are clamboring with your hands and feet to get over piles of rocks. The kickers though, are called “The Wall” and “The Squeeze.” Both of those sounded like there was a strong chance I would freeze and not be able to make it across, leaving me with then having to reconquer 27 boulder piles. I’m good, no thanks, have fun Sweetie.

Richard was into doing the upper trail, so I killed a little time, and then took the overland return trail to meet him at the exit. That’s easy and only a mile and a half. Richard was so motivated to not make me wait for him, he jammed through it in under an hour and actually got to the exit before me. He would have beaten even that time if he hadn’t run into a school group with dozens of teens wearing matching green T-shirts, all out for a day trip with an adventure camp. It sounds from the description that some of these kids got signed up for the camp precisely because their parents felt they needed more adventure in their lives. Richard says one of them was whining continuously, and loudly screaming periodically, saying he wishes he had never come to that camp. Everyone take a moment to appreciate camp counselors.

“The Wall” is described as an eight foot straight up ascent on a slippery rock surface with no footholds. There is a looped rope to assist, and people routinely stop at the bottom and offer you their knee so that you can reach toward the top. Then, people usually assist at the top to help pull you up. If you make it up that, you’re pretty locked in to getting through “The Squeeze,” which Richard thought was harder. It sounds like maybe there is a way to belly crawl through a tight tunnel, or you can go to the left and climb around it. He said that was tricky until you get to a point where you can grab ahold of the back side of a boulder to help pull you up. I have no regrets or FOMO on having Richard be my stunt double for this hike.

There was a volunteer at the opening of the tunnel, answering all kinds of geologic questions about how such a thing formed. She was super at explaining it all. The way to think of lava tubes is rivers of flowing lava that follow existing stream beds. They run down the water channel and eventually the top of the flow starts to cool and harden. That forms a roof. Underneath, the lava continues to flow because now it’s inside of an insulated channel. The molten liquid continues through, but thins out as the flow slows down. That makes the air chamber below the ceiling/roof. Eventually that cools and hardens too, which makes the floor. Over time, lots of time, soil and earth get carried down those same low valley pathways by water, thus covering the tube and making it end up under ground. Water finds its way inside, carrying silt and sand, which covers the floor. It’s all pretty damn cool.

We finished the day doing a hike in that area called the “Trail of Two Forests.” This is a place where old lava flows surrounded big tree trunks, forming circles. The trees burned up and eroded away, leaving empty pot holes in the ground. In some places, the same thing happened over the top of a huge fallen tree, which then leaves a tunnel.

For our next day, we drove out on 504 as far as we could go. There was a big landslide, cutting off the part of the road that goes up to Johnston Ridge Observatory. We couldn’t see that, but we could do the Hummocks Trail and part of the Boundary Trail. The former is about a 2.7 mile loop with numbered stops along the way and posted QR codes that will give you information about the geology of the area. I guess scientists were pretty excited after the May 18, 1980 eruption because it helped them understand what can happen when volcanoes blow. Hummocks are places where giant piles of debris have gotten thrown from the exploding mountainside. Over time, moss covers the surface, making a home for soil producing creatures. These areas can create lush and fertile oases and homes for all kinds of plants and animals.

Along both trails, we saw scores of wildflowers everywhere. There were places where swaths of lupines and clusters of St. John’s Wort mixed together like a blue and yellow Van Gogh painting spread across the ground. Also paving the way in little floral sprinkles were Indian paintbrush, penstemon, foxglove, and monkey flower, to name a few.

The Boundary Trail goes all the way up to the observatory, but that was not our goal. It’s a steady climb of 1759 feet and goes on for 4.4 miles one way. Too much to chew. We kind of struggled with whether to try to get to the Loowit Viewpoint, which would have been about three and a half miles one way. It was fairly hot and the trail is exposed almost all of the time. I pulled the plug at two miles out, knowing it would be the same back, plus the Hummock miles. I think it was a good call because we clocked in at over 7 miles and 1400’ and I was pooped.

We had time to check out the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center. They win the prize for Best Visitor Center because they had a freezer with ice cream sandwiches and mint Klondike bars. They also had movies and pictures and stuff, but really, they had me at ice cream. If you’re from the area, I’m sure you know how major this eruption was. Like, it blew off half of a ten thousand foot mountain. The surface of Spirit Lake created clouds of steam because it was literally boiling. They talked about blast zones and the devastation caused by the pyroclastic flows and mud floods. The destruction and reshaping of the entire valley is hard to comprehend. The thing that stands out to me though is how there was this guy, Harry Truman, who owned a lodge on Spirit Lake at the foot of the mountain. Though there were weeks and weeks of warnings for people to evacuate, he refused. Ok, fair game, if that’s how you want to die, that’s your call. But the movies of him showed he had cats and I can’t stop thinking about that. I’m going to choose to believe that someone insisted on taking the cats to safety and they happily live their best lives and didn’t get squished under two hundred feet of flaming mud.

We feel we really did get the full Mount Saint Helens experience here. Seaquest is a good place to stay as a jumping off point, but everything is just very very far apart. However, after seeing all the pictures of the aftermath, I think it’s a fine idea to place the campground rather far away from the exploding mountain. Fun stay!

Total miles from Skokomish: 102.5, 17.8 mpg, 2 hours 45 min. Site 58 no hookups. No solar. No cell. Wifi sort of sometimes at kiosk. Frustrating cell service. Good dump with potable water. Tippy site; had to use all the leveling blocks to raise driver’s side. Private site with lots of room.