Mount St. Helens
 

I can't get a good answer to this. What is the very best way to spend four hours at Helen's? Do we go in at Randle or Cougar? Which has the best Visitor's center?

My daughter (also a cat fancier) is there right now on a field trip with her Environmental Science class at UW. Not sure she'll have the answer to this question, but I'll ask her to try when she gets back.

Mt St Helens, excellent question.

The last time I went to Mt St Helens was the 20th Anniversary weekend of the eruption. When you get off I-5 to the 504, there's the first visitors center. Not too exciting. The mountain is visible but pretty small.
You get back on the highway and keep driving. You will see the theme of growth, regeneration. The trees that are only 15 feet tall, when normally it would be a old growth forest.
You get closer, there's more visitors centers, I can't remember the names. They get more interesting. What you'll notice is geology that takes place in 20 years instead of half a million years. Lakes that werent' there before the eruption, new streams and rivers that weren't there before May 18, 1980.
If you want to be real adventerous, drive all the way to Johnston Ridge, that's the ultimate. Even now, you see the devestation, burnt out tree stumps, gray moonscapes. There's a new visitors center, that's the best one. You look right into the crater. There's a memorial for the USGS geologist that lost his life before he notified Vancouver Wa of the eruption. You can see the former Spirit Lake, totally gone now.
In the visitors center there's this little movie that shows what it must have been like to be in the area during the eruption. It has this awsome THX sound, then when the movie is over, the curtain lifts and you're staring right into the crater of the real mountain, through a window! Brings oohhh and aaahhhs every time!

One thing to remember: DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!! Stay on the marked walking paths, don't even try to pick up a souvenier rock, you will be busted and they are serious about it.
Have plenty of gas if your going all the way to Johnston Ridge, and have fun!

Travel the four corners...Nice reply. So if you were going to go, you would take the 504 and go all the way to Johnston Ridge stopping off at the visitor's centers along the way? I'm getting goose bumps already. Thanks!

Definitely go all the way to Johnston Ridge! The visitors center film there is wonderful. After that go for a hike...there is a trailhead that is at the edge of the parking lot there.

Yep, you got a plan! Hit the visitors center along the way and don't stop until you get to Johnston Ridge!
Serious on the gas, fill up, just in case. Pack snacks, although some visitors centers have snack bars.

We went there in June 2001, we took 503 to 131, this is really back roads and there are no visitor centers. You will see the approx site of the old Truman Lodge, the lodge owner refused to leave because his wife was buried there. And you can see Spirit lake, which is not totally gone but is incrusted with fallen logs. The USGS is trying to refurbish the lake. You can get closer to the eruption site this way but it is very steep and narrow, we got snowed on in JUNE. There is a neat little restaurant in Cougar that serves BIG portions for little $. Take water and a cell phone, plus a full tank of gas if you go this way as stated, there are no visitor centers, only one portable bathroom. DO NOT TRY TO TOUCH OR BRING OUT ANYTHING IT IS A FEDERAL OFFENSE. This way is very desolate but beautiful, you will eventually come out at Randle. Go early in the day, so you can come down in the daylight. In June it didn't get dark until 9pm. My pix are incredible, we were so awestuck, we did not even turn the video camera on.