Romano Craig - Day hiking Mount St. Helens: National Volcanic Monument, nature trails, winter routes, summit

Wildflowers on the Pumice Plain on the Truman Trail

A hiker admires the Pumice Plain from the Boundary Trail on Johnston Ridge.

A sparkling Coldwater Lake from South Coldwater Ridge

Mount Rainier from the summit of Badger Peak

Receiving illumination at Seminary Hill

Frozen Goat Marsh and snowy Mount St. Helens

Covel Creek Falls

Classic view of Spirit Lake and Mount St. Helens from Norway Pass

Swift Reservoir, Mount Rainier, and Mount Adams from Siouxon Peak

A misty morning at Spencer Meadow

A heron hunts at Lake Sacajawea.

A climbing party, including the two co-authors, on the summit of Mount St. Helens

DAY HIKING

Mount St. Helens

national volcanic monument nature trails winter routes summit

by Craig Romano & Aaron Theisen

Mountaineers Books is the publishing division of The Mountaineers, an organization founded in 1906 and dedicated to the exploration, preservation, and enjoyment of outdoor and wilderness areas. 1001 SW Klickitat Way, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98134 800.553.4453, www.mountaineersbooks.org

Copyright 2015 by Craig Romano and Aaron Theisen

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

Distributed in the United Kingdom by Cordee, www.cordee.co.uk

First edition, 2015

Copy Editor: Erin Moore

Design and Layout: Jennifer Shontz, www.redshoedesign.com

Cartographer: Pease Press Cartography

Cover photograph: Spirit Lake and Mount St. Helens from the Boundary Trail near Coldwater Peak

Frontispiece: An emerald Castle Ridge yields to a snowcapped, gray Mount St. Helens.

All photographs the authors unless otherwise noted.

A catalog record for this book is available at the Library of Congress.

Background maps for the maps in this book were produced using the online map viewer CalTopo and National Geographic's TOPO! software. For more information about CalTopo, visit caltopo.com.

Printed on recycled paper

ISBN (paperback): 978-1-59485-848-2

ISBN (ebook): 978-1-59485-849-9

A sand ladder makes travel easier on steep pumiced slopes.

Researching and writing Day Hiking Mount St. Helens was fun, exciting, and a lot of hard work. A huge thank you to all the great people at Mountaineers Books, especially publisher Helen Cherullo, project manager Mary Metz, and editor in chief Kate Rogers.

I want to thank Aaron Theisen for agreeing to work with me on this project and for being such a great co-author and friend. I am happy to have been able to work with you on an area that we both greatly love. I look forward to working with you again in the near future. I also want to thank our editor, Erin Moore, for her attention to detail and thoughtful suggestions that help to make this book a finer volume.

I could not have hiked and researched every single mile of trail within the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument without the help of the following great people. A big thanks to Kristan Carver, Peder Bisbjerg, Jay Thompson, Douglas Romano, Ryan Ojerio, Gwen Tollefson, Ted Evans, and Wendy Wheeler-Jacobs for accompanying me on so many great hikes!

A big grazie too to rangers Heather Latham and Gary Walker with the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument for all of their invaluable help and information.

I also want to once again thank God for watching over me, keeping me safe and healthy, while I hiked all over the backcountry. And lastly, but most importantly, I want to thank my loving wife, Heather, for supporting me while I worked on yet another guidebook. Thanks for hiking with me, too, to some of the special places in this book and providing me with more precious memories. I cant wait for us to take our new son to Mount St. Helens!