Mount St. Helens - Monitor Ridge — Friday, Jul. 4, 2025

Road was rougher than expected. Made it in a commuter car staying in 1st most of the way, occasionally shifting up to 2nd. Didn’t go faster than 10mph, mostly hung around 5mph. Coming out was worse than the way in because the decline added unwanted momentum.

Funnily enough, the decline on the hike was the harder direction too. Not sure if it was the clouds that rolled in or if this is always true of the decline, but it was harder to stay on trail coming down. Visibility was to the horizon on the way up, but clouds were thick and decreased visibility to ~10ft. Used my GPS to get back on trail at one point, so would recommend having something like that with you.

Route was snow free. Still possible to glissade for sections along ~2/3 of the trail. Caveat that there are some rock sections in between the snow sections. 

Quick plug to say highly recommend an early ascent! Even though I wasn’t out of the trees until after sunrise, watching the sun rise over the ridge near Adams and the valley below was still beautiful. Meant the temp wasn’t too hot on the way up and down which was awesome too.  Worth the lack of sleep :)

There were a number of bees and other fliers on trail, but I wasn’t bothered by any of them. Plenty of pesky mosquitoes doing their pesky thing at the parking lot in the evening though.

Wildflowers included bears tail, tiger lilies, and possibly a wild lupine? Salmon berries are flowering. Saw deer in the morning in the wooded section and a hummingbird in the wooded section on the way back. Spotted one pika and numerous chipmunks in boulder section.