After leaving Mt Ranier, I made my way south into the NE entryway to Mt St Helens. A nice stop at Iron Creek Falls, Bear meadows and then out to the Windy Ridge Viewpoint. The view into the crater, and the spirit lake overlook were awesome! The lake still holds the tens of thousands of trees that were blown down by the eruption, and the dome inside the crater reminded me of the belly of a woman nine months pregnant! "Watch out, she's gonna blow" ;)
Plumes are visible, and I even saw a waterfall within the dome, either from the steam or late season snow melt.
You can hike up to the crater rim, but the details of the hike were not inticing to me. The bulk of the 4.5 mile, 4500' climb is above treeline. The cascades are inherently made up of scarp, and in conversation with a women who had made the climb, she described literally being on her hands and knees at times, working through the loose rocks...
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