Camping at Mt. St. Helens

A few weeks ago Kelley and I were emailing back and forth and somehow the idea of a camping trip came up. Because she and I are so much alike when it comes to planning, we got a date on the calendar within a few hours and decided on Mt. St. Helens as our destination.

We met up on Sunday morning south of Olympia and party-trained our way to Seaquest State Park. The campground was empty so we had no problem finding two good sites next to each other. We set up camp and had lunch, then checked out the wetlands trail at Silver Lake (across the highway from the campground). Chris and Paul took control of Owen and the dogs so Kelley and I could take pictures of all the wildflowers. The mountain was hiding behind some low clouds, so we decided to jump in the truck and drive closer. We ended up going all the way to Johnston Ridge but the clouds were still hovering in front of our view, so we headed back to the campground. We stopped at a couple spots along the way (Elk Rock and Coldwater Lake). Once we were back at camp, we cooked dinner, built a fire and pigged out on s'mores. Owen slept with us in the tent just like a big boy, and he was great. After all, this was his third time camping. He's a pro. Monday morning, we went for another drive. The mountain was out, so we decided to head straight for Johnston Ridge again. We spent some time at the observation center and walked the trails. Once we were finished at Johnston Ridge, we made our way back down to the Hummocks trailhead. It's a 3 mile loop trail that takes you through all kinds of terrain. We were able to see the Toutle River valley, several small ponds and streams, two beaver dams, and lots of wildflowers. The dogs were great and Owen had a blast. After the hike, we drove back to camp so Kelley and Paul could head home. We said our goodbyes, and Chris and Owen settled in for a nap. I walked back down to the wetland trail with my camera and spent an hour taking pictures of blue herons. When my battery died, I walked back to the campground to find my two guys awake and ready for dinner. We ate, built another fire, and settled back in for the night.

Tuesday morning we broke our camp and headed back down to the wetland trail one last time. We let Owen run all over the dock in hopes that he'd sleep on the drive home (it worked). So now we're home and getting back in the swing of things. I'm already planning our next trip in my head. We've decided that Kelley and Paul are our new Preferred Camping Partners and we would love to go on another trip with them. Kelley made it sound like they had little to no camping experience, but they were great and we really loved spending some time with them.