Ghost Lake

Ghost Lake hides on the eastern flank of the Mt. St. Helens blast zone, reached by extending past Norway Pass on the Boundary Trail and dropping into the basin below Bismarck Mountain. The route shares its trailhead and first miles with the Norway Pass crowds before splitting off — most hikers turn around at the pass, so the Ghost Lake leg trades the views for genuine solitude.

The country shows the eruption's mark. Silver fir and noble fir saplings push up through fields of bleached snags. Wildflowers — paintbrush, lupine, fireweed — dominate the recovering meadows in midsummer. The lake itself sits in a small basin, ringed by recovering shoreline and notable for its near-stillness; few parties make it this far.

The connecting bridge over Clearwater Creek is gone, and the only crossing is a log downstream of the original tread. Brush has reclaimed parts of the trail, and the route demands attention to the tread under the foliage and to sinkholes that open on the Bismarck flanks. This is the wilder cousin of Norway Pass, less polished and more rewarding for it.