Unique opportunity at Mt. St. Helens

jeff@work

Adventurer
I thought i'd post this up cause who knows if you'll be able to do it next year. Right now NF-99 going into the east side of Mt. St. Helens National Monument is closed after the Bear Meadow overlook. However you can ride your bike or hike the remaining 11.5 miles of the road, all the way to the Windy Ridge overlook! (23 miles roundtrip) I rode my bike down it last week and not only does it have some amazing views but I was the only person out there.... kinda nice having a national park all to yourself :jump:
Anywho not sure when they're going to get the road repaired and open to vehicle traffic again, from what i heard it won't be this year.
 

Rallyroo

Expedition Leader
Beautiful blue waters.

Instead of people rubbernecking and causing traffic, you mean one can actually stop whenever they want to since they're on a bicycle? That's a great opportunity.
 

ThomD

Explorer
Wow, what a great opportunity. We did the Crater Lake loop last year before it opened to motor traffic and it was grand.

Bummer that I'm burning up the last of my vacation installing floors this week.
 

paulj

Expedition Leader
Bear Meadow overlook; is that the one where the photographer got the rapid sequece shots of the actual eruption?

What kind of damage is there to the road? About where? I knew those roads were slow in melting out, but haven't paid a lot attention to conditions in the past month.
 

jeff@work

Adventurer
I rode Crater Lake the week before I went up to Mt. St. Helens and I actually enjoyed the Mt. St. Helens ride better, granted I did have to deal with cars at Crater Lake, not like you can go wrong with either ride. I kinda swung through Mt. St. Helens on a whim and I have to say the area is so much more beautiful that I expected, it's much more than just the volcano.

This shows you the road damage, it's a couple miles from the Bear Meadow overlook. http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/news/2008/20080723a-forest-roads-99.shtml
The rest of the road is in pretty good condition, there's a few rock slides here and there that haven't been cleaned up since it's not open to vehicles but nothing major. Certainly didn't slow me down much on my road bike :bike_rider:

Yes, Bear Meadows is where a photographer shot photos of the actual eruption then had to flee driving through falling rocks and ash!
 

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