Loowit Trail around Mount Saint Helens

Mount Saint Helens from the east at sunrise

My friend Sheri and I hiked the Loowit Trail counter-clockwise around Mount Saint Helens, beginning and ending at the Climbers Bivouac trailhead. We took 4 days, though it's doable in 3. Overall, Loowit is a challenging but fabulous hike with a wide variety of scenery. Per my Garmin, we hiked 36 miles overall, with roughly 11,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. 

Hiking Tip: Just three water sources on the trip (June Lake, a stream in the blast zone and the Toutle River), and most of the hike is exposed, so plan to carry a gallon of water and be prepared for sun.

Trail map of Loowit Trail circling the volcano

Day 1 - Climbers Bivouac to June Lake

5.75 miles, up 1600' and down 2162'

Mt St Helens from the south

We hit the trail at 12:30pm, beginning with a 2-mile ascent up the Ptarmigan trail to the junction with the Loowit Trail. Once on the trail, we alternated strolling through lovely forest with rock hopping across lava fields. We caught some glimpses of Mount Adams in the distance, but Monday was hazy. 

In the lava fields, the trail is marked by poles stuck in the rocks or rock cairns on top of boulders.

Chocolate Falls

Sheri overlooking stream below Chocolate Falls

We crossed a stream of glacier runoff aptly named Chocolate Falls. Beautiful blue skies and lots of sunshine.

June Lake sits a quarter mile down from the Loowit Trail. We had the lake to ourselves, so we pitched our tents right next to the water with a lovely waterfall a couple of hundred yards away on the opposite shore.

We washed off a bit in the water, though it isn’t really a swimmable lake, then filtered water for the next day and a half. Ate dinner and retired to our tents around 7:30. No bugs to speak of, much to my surprise. 

Day 2 - June Lake to Pumice Butte

6.5 miles, up 3222' and down 2097'

For the first 1.5 miles, we hiked uphill through the forest. Then we spent much of the rest of the hike traveling through the Worm Flows (named for rivers of rocky lava that oozed out of the volcano around 2000 years ago).

Mount Adams in the haze

We had almost constant views of Mt Adams through the haze throughout the day. We also had hazy views of Mt Rainier (aka The Mountain) for a while.

And we crossed half a dozen gullies filled with blocks of andesite rock, some a little sketchier than others.

We didn't know we were off trail...

But hey, it was an adventure!

Yep, that's the trail down below...

And we managed to get ourselves off the trail in the rocks. Ended up scrambling up a boulder field for a while until we realized the trail was down below. Oops! Thankfully, we safely scrambled back down and chalked it up to adventure.

Lunch with a view

Lunch venue was divine.

Arrows pointing to Momma Bear and her cubs

At the junction with Ape Canyon Trail we saw a big momma bear with her two cubs foraging on the side of Pumice Butte. We kept our distance.

Camp below Pumice Butte

Mt St Helens from our campsite at sunset

Made camp on the other side of Pumice Butte. Great views of The Volcano (not to be confused with The Mountain) above our camp.

Sheri and Mount Adams

Just across the trail from our camp was a bluff with Mount Adams views. We ended up making camp about 2pm, but it was a choice between making camp early or hiking another 12 miles to the next available camping spot on the other (west) side of the 1980 blast zone. So we spent a quiet afternoon in camp.

Day 3 - Pumice Butte to Toutle River

13 miles, 2381' up and 3501' down

Mount Adams from our camp at sunrise

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise. We also saw fresh bear prints and elk prints on the trail in between our tents and our food sacks. Apparently we had visitors overnight, though thankfully they did not bother either us or our food.

Plains of Abraham

Mt Rainier beyond the Plains of Abraham

Walked through the Plains of Abraham for a mile and a half or so before heading up Windy Pass. Named after plains of the same name in Quebec, this relatively flat expanse of volcanic rock and ash just east of the 1980 blast zone can seem desolate or contemplative, depending on your mood. We had the plains to ourselves. And in fact, we did not see another person the entire day until we got to camp.

Windy Pass with trail on side of right slope

We hiked up Windy Pass over a very sketchy scree field. (You can see the trail on the right side of the gully, in the middle of the rocks.) This section of trail alone made us glad we hiked counter-clockwise around the volcano instead of the usual clockwise. Contemplating descending that scree field would have terrified me. 

View back to the east from top of Windy Pass

Mount Margaret and Spirit Lake in distance

From Windy Pass we could see Spirit Lake and Mount Margaret. Coming down the other side of the pass was much easier than scrambling up the scree field.

Mt Rainier in distance from below Windy Pass

We could also see Mount Rainier in the distance. After coming down Windy Pass, we hiked through more plains until we reached the junction with the Truman Trail.

East Dome of Mt St Helens

Mount Saint Helens looks very different from the east! It was intriguing to see the volcano from all sides during our hike.

Small spring with East Dome in background

Just past the Truman Trail, Junction, 3 miles after leaving camp, we found a small spring where we filtered a couple liters of water each to last the next 10 miles. Less than half a mile further down the trail is the more popular watering spot in the midst of some bushes.

Mount Saint Helens from NNE with jet stream

Spirit Lake behind Sheri

For the next several miles we hiked through the blast zone from the 1980 eruption. We also saw more of Spirit Lake. If you look closely, you can see hundreds of logs along the shore left over from the 1980 blast.

Smoke plume over West Dome of the volcano, Loowit Falls on right

Loowit Falls

2 of our mountain goat friends

We took a side trip to the Loowit Falls viewpoint. The detour added a mile (not the quarter mile each way that the sign promises), but it was well worth it. In addition to the falls, we saw four mountain goats.

Pumice Plain below Johnston Ridge

Back on the regular trail, we continued hiking through the blast zone. We hiked up and down several gullies, though they weren’t as rocky as the ones on the east side of the mountain.

We had our first water crossing of the day.

As you would expect, the whole area around the volcano is filled with cool rocks of many colors (geologist, I am not).

Moss covered the ground on the ridge above the Toutle River

Even though wildflower season ended weeks ago, the landscape was rather colorful in places, and we had quite a variety of scenery throughout the day.

On the northwest side of the blast zone, denuded trees stand in stark contrast to the landscape regenerating around them. An estimated 10 million trees were topped and stripped as debris swept through the area after the blast.

The blast shaped the landscape dramatically.

About 11 miles into Wednesday's hike, we started our descent to the Toutle River.

The last drop to the river is quite steep and unstable. Fortunately, someone (presumably the forest service) placed ropes to help hikers descend safely.

Toutle River

Once at the river, we filtered water for the next day and chatted with a couple of hikers, the only people we saw all day. We set up camp just above the river, ate dinner, and settled in for the night.

Day 4 - Toutle River back to Climbers Bivouac

10.5 miles, 4106' up and 3531' down

Rock field south of the volcano (part of Swift Creek Flow)

Our final day of hiking began in forest that soon turned to meadow and then rock fields.

Trail up to Crescent Ridge

Bear grass on Crescent Ridge

Leaving camp, we immediately began the 1500' climb up 1.7 miles to Crescent Ridge through lush, old forest. The climb was steady on a soft trail. So honestly, not bad.

Sheep Canyon

Descending into Sheep Canyon

Arrived at Sheep Canyon about 3.8 miles from camp. The trail descends along the edge of the ridge for a while before crossing the canyon. Again, ropes eased the climb down and up the unstable canyon walls.

Mount Saint Helens from the SSW

Mount Hood in the distance

Mount Adams in distance

After sheep Canyon, we climbed back up the ridge and walked through meadows and forest until we reached the junction with Butte Camp trail, about 6 miles into the day's hike. We crossed three gullies along the way and enjoyed beautiful views of Mount Saint Helens and Mount Hood.

Sheri hiking through boulder field

Just past the Butte Camp trail junction, we crossed a very large lava field, thinking that would prove to be the major boulder crossing of the day. How naive we were...Most of the last mile before the junction with the Ptarmigan trail consists of an enormous lava flow called the Swift Creek Flow.

Eventually, we left the boulder fields behind and rejoined the Ptarmigan Trail back to Climbers Bivouac to close out a marvelous hike.