2014 Edition
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We were out to
Mount Saint Helens in 2010 and again in
2011,
2013,
Spring, 2014 and
Summer, 2014.
There are no gas stations past the 10.5 mile point (from I-5) on Hwy 504. The
Shell station just beyond the Toutle Post Office is the last chance to buy fuel
(incl. diesel). The round trip distance to the end of the highway (Johnston Ridge)
from this point is 82 mi (132 km). Cheaper gas is available at Castle Rock as you
exit the I-5 freeway.
DIRECTIONS
The most popular tourist route into the Mount St. Helens area is via Washington state
route 504. It can be reached at Castle Rock (exit #49) off Interstate 5 in Washington,
about one hour and 15 minutes north of Portland and two hours south of Seattle.
It's been a typical Portland Fall for several weeks. Torrential rain, high winds
and very cold. Going anywhere on the bike has been out of the question. This weekend
the forecast was heavy rain North, South and West.... and heavy snow in the Gorge.
The only potentially feasible destination was Mount St Helens although it was
supposed to start snowing above 3,000' in the Cascades Saturday afternoon. We
figured with an early start and a little luck we might be able to get some good
views out that way since this is definitely the last weekend that the highway
will be open. In fact, I'm pretty sure you can't get much past Toutle, Washington
today (Monday).
Rained heavily going up I-5. Rain let up once we turned East but there was a
thick, low ceiling of clouds. Often times you can get above it and enjoy some
good mountain views and blue sky..... but not today.
Started snowing HEAVY at around 3,000'. And it would only get worse the higher
we went. I got stuck in a white-out at 10,000' on Mount Hood and I can tell you
from experience that white-outs are best avoided. As you can see from this
picture, attempting to go forward would have been foolhardy.
Headed back down and found a nice lunch spot with a magical waterfall.
Julie took all of today's pictures cuz I was too lazy to drag out my camera.
You can enlarge some of these images by clicking on them.
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