Mount St. Helens - Monitor Ridge — Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025

Rose: Wow what a beautiful hike. Standing on the rim and looking into the crater and the views along the way are worth the climb and the rough forest road.

Rose: Our 6 and 8 year old kids made it to the summit. We started at 8am and it took us 11.5 hours - 6hrs going up and 5.5hrs coming down. The first 2 miles were a nice warm up walk through the shaded forest. The kids loved climbing over the boulders in the boulder fields. The final section through the scree was a rough, slow slog.

Rose: The volunteer at the summit had some super cool, interesting facts and tidbits about the mountain. And had extra water to give away. Thank you!

Bud: Next time we will bring lots of water (we drank all of the 11 liters we packed for the 4 of us) and remember to apply sunscreen or wear long sleeves. And bring the hiking poles we accidentally left in the car.

Thorn: The road was the worst forest road we have been on in our model Y, but we made it. We saw a few Prius’s and other lower clearance vehicles that also made it.