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canyonwalkerPacific Northwest August Travelog #2
Puyallup, WA - Fri, 5 Aug 2022, 11:30pm
Whew, it's been quite a day of hiking in Washington! I'd say we began by getting up bright and early but we didn't. After only getting to bed at 2am after a late night arrival last night we were in no mood to get up with our 6:30/6:45am alarms. I swatted the snooze on mine a few times then turned it off entirely. I got up at the crack of 9:00.
From there we ate breakfast in the room, showered, and packed our bags for the day. We checked out and headed out to Covel Creek Falls, about 90 minutes east and around the far side of Mount St. Helens. The trail at Covel Creek is a 4 mile semi loop trail. I believe the technical term is lollipop.
The Covel Creek Trail climbs about 1,000' and visits two waterfalls: the eponymous Covel Creek Falls and Angel Falls. Covel Creek Falls is awesome because it's about 80' tall and the trail goes behind it. Angel Falls is awesome because while it doesn't look like much from the main trail, a short spur trail leads back 100' in the canyon to a spot where you can appreciate that Angel Falls is a really a 100'+ tall wet wall; moss draped bare rock with many rivulets of water running down it.
Hiking Covel Creek took us a few hours and consumed a lot of our energy. With so many other worthy things to hike in the area we weren't ready to throw in the towel, though. As long as there's light, as long as there's energy, we hike.
Just around the corner from Covel Creek Trail was the trail for Camp Creek Falls. It was mercifully short, just 1/2 mile round trip, so we could manage hiking it on the heels of Covel Creek. Camp Creek was flowing strongly. It put on quite a display as it poured down a 60' cascade.
Our next stop was a fair drive away: Windy Ridge in Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. It was just after 5pm by the time we arrived at the Windy Ridge parking lot, at the end of the road that comes in from the northeast side. Mt. St. Helens itself was still a few miles beyond us, but we were close enough that we could see a wisp of smoke rising from its bore. Windy Ridge, tho... Windy Ridge is a hilltop reached by a staircase up from the parking lot. There are four hundred thirty-nine stairs to get to the top. Guess how I know. From the top I could see not only Mt. St. Helens a few miles to the south but also Mt. Adams to the east and Mt. Rainier to the northeast. Both are still capped with snow in August.
Our final stop, at least our final stop hiking-wise, was at Iron Creek Falls. We passed it on the way up to Windy Ridge and decided to hike it afterwards, time permitting. Well, I don't know if time really permitted, but we decided that since nobody was checking time permits we'd just do it. It was an easy 1/4 mile walk. The falls shoot out of a chute and drop about 25' into a nice bowl. And the water really does shoot. It projects almost 20' out from the rock lip.
On our drive from there to Puyallup, our stop for the night (and tomorrow night, too), we stopped in the small town of Morton for dinner. We ordered burgers and fries at an order-at-the-window type restaurant. We sat on the porch and ate our dinner until the sun was almost down.
Now we're in Puyallup. We reached the hotel around 10:40. I took a quick soak in the hot tub followed by a hot shower. Together those sluiced off the dirt and sweat I felt covered with and loosened my tight muscles. Now I'm unwinding before bed to get ready for another full day tomorrow.
Update: Saturday we do "Ring Around Rainier" with visits to several more waterfalls!
Update 2: I've written blogs about the four hikes we did on Friday:
Puyallup, WA - Fri, 5 Aug 2022, 11:30pm
Whew, it's been quite a day of hiking in Washington! I'd say we began by getting up bright and early but we didn't. After only getting to bed at 2am after a late night arrival last night we were in no mood to get up with our 6:30/6:45am alarms. I swatted the snooze on mine a few times then turned it off entirely. I got up at the crack of 9:00.
From there we ate breakfast in the room, showered, and packed our bags for the day. We checked out and headed out to Covel Creek Falls, about 90 minutes east and around the far side of Mount St. Helens. The trail at Covel Creek is a 4 mile semi loop trail. I believe the technical term is lollipop.
The Covel Creek Trail climbs about 1,000' and visits two waterfalls: the eponymous Covel Creek Falls and Angel Falls. Covel Creek Falls is awesome because it's about 80' tall and the trail goes behind it. Angel Falls is awesome because while it doesn't look like much from the main trail, a short spur trail leads back 100' in the canyon to a spot where you can appreciate that Angel Falls is a really a 100'+ tall wet wall; moss draped bare rock with many rivulets of water running down it.
Hiking Covel Creek took us a few hours and consumed a lot of our energy. With so many other worthy things to hike in the area we weren't ready to throw in the towel, though. As long as there's light, as long as there's energy, we hike.
Just around the corner from Covel Creek Trail was the trail for Camp Creek Falls. It was mercifully short, just 1/2 mile round trip, so we could manage hiking it on the heels of Covel Creek. Camp Creek was flowing strongly. It put on quite a display as it poured down a 60' cascade.
Our next stop was a fair drive away: Windy Ridge in Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. It was just after 5pm by the time we arrived at the Windy Ridge parking lot, at the end of the road that comes in from the northeast side. Mt. St. Helens itself was still a few miles beyond us, but we were close enough that we could see a wisp of smoke rising from its bore. Windy Ridge, tho... Windy Ridge is a hilltop reached by a staircase up from the parking lot. There are four hundred thirty-nine stairs to get to the top. Guess how I know. From the top I could see not only Mt. St. Helens a few miles to the south but also Mt. Adams to the east and Mt. Rainier to the northeast. Both are still capped with snow in August.
Our final stop, at least our final stop hiking-wise, was at Iron Creek Falls. We passed it on the way up to Windy Ridge and decided to hike it afterwards, time permitting. Well, I don't know if time really permitted, but we decided that since nobody was checking time permits we'd just do it. It was an easy 1/4 mile walk. The falls shoot out of a chute and drop about 25' into a nice bowl. And the water really does shoot. It projects almost 20' out from the rock lip.
On our drive from there to Puyallup, our stop for the night (and tomorrow night, too), we stopped in the small town of Morton for dinner. We ordered burgers and fries at an order-at-the-window type restaurant. We sat on the porch and ate our dinner until the sun was almost down.
Now we're in Puyallup. We reached the hotel around 10:40. I took a quick soak in the hot tub followed by a hot shower. Together those sluiced off the dirt and sweat I felt covered with and loosened my tight muscles. Now I'm unwinding before bed to get ready for another full day tomorrow.
Update: Saturday we do "Ring Around Rainier" with visits to several more waterfalls!
Update 2: I've written blogs about the four hikes we did on Friday:
