Wild ride pays off in great views

It's worth the wild ride to get to Windy Ridge on Mt. St. Helens' blown out Northeast side.

The road weaves its way through thick forest as you head south from a turnoff on Washington's Highway 12 near the town of Randle.

Vehicles dip in and out of ruts and potholes galore, as the foursome I was with found out on a late August day.

Barry and I bumped our heads on the ceiling frequently in the back seat, while Nancy and Ethan in the front fared little better on the jolting trek.

A different kind of shock awaits you as you get closer to the mountain, as you suddenly pop out of the forest into a world of much smaller and evenly sized trees.

You are now entering the blast zone carved out when the mountain blew her top during a massive landslide the morning of May 18, 1980.

Life is slowly but surely returning to the area, from alders, firs and alpines to flowers and brush.

Thanks to the smaller size of the trees, the mountain itself comes into view and reappears again and again along with its close neighbors Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier.  Oregon's Mt. Hood even appears for a brief moment.

The path offers vistas from pullouts along the way until at last you come to the wide parking lot at Windy Ridge.

From here you get a view of the Northeast side of the mountain, right into the crater with the lava dome that gradually built up since the 1980 blast.

A switch-backed path goes up a hillside and offers a view over some hills and trees in between the ridge and the mountain, and on one side of the lot you can look down on the log-strewn remains of Spirit Lake.

Once you are done taking in the sights and absorbing the size and scope of the 1980 disaster, it's time to hit the long and winding road out once more.

How to get there:

To get to Windy Ridge, take Highway 12 from either Interstate 5 to the west or from the Yakima side to the east.

Follow the Mt. St. Helens and Windy Ridge signs south from near Randle.

Text and photos by Tim Clinton.