The Loowit Trail | Running the Loowit Trail around Mount St. Helens

The Loowit Trail is a trail that circumnavigates Mount St. Helens in Washington state. The Loowit Trail is roughly 30 miles long and explores the ever changing landscape of Mount St. Helens. The terrain is challenging as it changes from the cover of forest to massive lava rock fields, deep gullies, and high ridge lines.

The Loowit Trail takes you through the blast zone of Mount St. Helens' May 1980 eruption. The northern side of the Loowit Trail takes you through the blast zone where you can see the after effects of the eruption.

We started our journey around the Loowit Trail from the June Lake trailhead on the southern side of Mount St. Helens. The June Lake trail took us about 1.5 miles before reaching the actual Loowit Trail. Once on the Loowit Trail, we headed east (clockwise) toward Chocolate Falls where the Loowit crosses paths with the winter climbing route of Mount St. Helens--Worm Flows. Shortly after, we intersected the summer climbing route-- the Ptarmigan Trail/Monitor Ridge Trail originating from the Climbers Bivouac trailhead.

We worked our way through some fog and deep gullies eventually arriving at the crossing of the South Fork Toutle River about 13 miles into the Loowit Trail. We were able to find a way across without having to get wet. After crossing, we took the opportunity to fill up our water bottles and grab a bite to eat. Using a rope to climb back out of the river basin, we eventually made our way up to a dramatic ridge with stunning views of Mount St. Helens.

After working our way around the north eastern side of the Loowit Trail, we came around the north side where we caught our first glimpse of Spirit Lake and the blast zone left behind from the 1980 eruption. Even after 40+ years, the landscape is dramatically different than other parts of the Loowit Trail. It's quite something to see.

After some pretty runnable terrain through the blast zone, we began our ascent to Windy Pass. Windy pass is the highest point on the Loowit Trail at 4,800 ft. It's not really all that great of a view point, however. We didn't stay long and headed down the backside of the pass to the Plains of Abraham. The Plains of Abraham is another barren landscape that got it's name from the pyroclastic flow of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. Despite the harsh landscape, there are some pretty stunning views of Mt. Adams.

After crossing the Plains of Abraham, we encountered what was probably the most difficult section of the Loowit Trail for us. There was a section of 2-3 miles that were covered by steep gullies/ravines that we had to continually traverse up and down. After running about 25 miles or so, this was difficult for us on tired legs. We eventually made our way through this "gauntlet of ravines" and found our way back to the junction with the June Lake trail.

Overall this run took us 31.85 miles around the iconic Mount St. Helens with ~7,100 ft of elevation gain. It was an epic day that we will not soon forget!

As always, thank you for watching and please subscribe to our channel to keep following along on all of our adventures!

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