Coldwater Science Center is currently open weekends, 10am to 4 pm, and will be open daily starting June 15 through Labor Day.   Forest Learning Center is closed until May 16, then it is open 10-4 daily. The Mount St. Helens Visitor Center at Seaquest is open daily. Johnston Ridge remains closed due to a bridge washout, but work has started to replace the bridge and it may be open this fall.  Lower trails are snow free with snow only on on high elevation Mount Margaret trails. 

I thought this May 18 I would share some family photos of the eruption.  This is the view we saw from our home just east of Toutle.  These photos have never been published.

Last year while slogging around the Toutle State Forest in search of elk sheds and unique birds, I discovered a little gem of a swamp (and a saw-whet owl).  As a trained botanist, I noticed the unique character of the wetland, with bog laurel, peat moss, abundant shrubs rimmed by remnant old growth and snags.  Unfortunately, the whole wet meadow was crisscrossed with ATV tire tracks and mudder abuse.  The DNR had tried pit traps, signs, and other barriers to keep slobs out of this special area to no avail.  One spring day, I was there when a side-by-side came putting right through the center of the meadow, tearing up the unique plants and leaving a long-lasting scar.  When confronted, the folks in the UTV couldn't believe they were doing anything wrong.  I guess they figured the barriers the DNR had dug to try to keep out motorized vehicles did not mean them.   Now the DNR has designated 166 acres of this wetland and some of surrounding land as the Toutle Ridge Fen Nature Area Preserve.  The designation should give the DNR more options to enforce the "no motorized vehicles" policy.  (Oddly, the DNR logged part of what is now 'protected forever' just last year.) 

I've started to exploring the Hoffstadt Hills property,  a new addition to the state-owned St. Helens Wildlife Area. This new public acquisition provides an instant boost for hiking, dog walking, and bicycling on ready-made 'trails' aka old logging roads.  The property contains at least 2 miles of trail/roads that provide a great place to birdwatch, stretch the legs, or access the mudflow area.  The main route parallels the Spirit Lake Highway.  The grades are gradual, the roads recently maintained, and the substate is pretty smooth for walking and would work for bicycles or even some strollers.  This strip of property connects with Ecopark Resort on the west and Havilah Retreat (the former Hoffstadt Visitor Center) on the east, and the Department of Wildlife Mudflow Unit to the south.  More hiking opportunities on old roads and unofficial trails are available once on the Mudflow Unit (that area was closed to protect wintering elk until May 1).  Park near the gate where the access road drops toward the mudflow.  Currently the land is not signed as public land, but the Weyerhaeuser signs have been removed.  

**After considering input from the public survey I reported on,  the USFS Gifford Pinchot National Forest has announced that they will not allow commercial huckleberry picking in 2026.**

Huckleberry picking is a treasured cultural and generational activity around Mount St. Helens.  As a child in the 1970's, I remember following my mother into the berry patches at the "turnaround" at the base of the volcano. There was an old road of pumice that had huckleberries growing under the scrubby trees.  "Plink, plink," the berries would hit the bottom of my coffee can.  "Is your bottom covered yet?" my mother would ask.  More berries hit my mouth than my bucket so it took along time to fill the bottom of my bucket.  With purple fingers, we would stop at icy Spirit Lake on our way home.  We were eating those berries in hotcakes on May 18, 1980 when the mountain destroyed that whole area.  

Fortunately, huckleberry picking has returned-- not legally to the Monument--but to areas outside of that designated area.  The problem now is that areas like Strawberry Mountain and Goat Mountain  have been overrun by commercial harvesters, that strip a hillside with gangs of young men.  Local families are competing just to get a few berries for their hotcakes.  The USFS paused commercial picking last summer, and now they are collecting data on this action, and on the impacts or benefits of commercial picking.  If you have ever picked huckleberries, or want to someday, please fill out the survey.