Mount St. Helens-Johnston Ridge We will travel a different route this year to Mount St. Helens beginning in Lacey, in the parking lot between Safeway and the McDonalds on Marvin Road. There is gas nearby, a Starbucks nearby and a Safeway if you need to pick something up for lunch. We will have a drivers meeting at approx. 8:30 am and then head out about 9:00 am The drive will go south, past St. Clair and Offut lakes, then down old Hwy 99, making our first stop in the town of Tenino at the city park. We will then continue south through Centralia. At Centralia we will then head east towards the town of Cinebar and then turn south to our second stop at Ike Kinswa State Park. The state park does require a Discover Pass but this will only be about a 15 minute rest stop. You are supposed to be allowed 15 minutes without one but some rangers can be picky about this with a larger group, so your call on the pass. After our stop, we will head back west through the town of Salkum, then going down Spencer rd. to Jackson highway and on to Toledo for our lunch stop at South County park. After lunch we will head down Jackson Hwy to Old Pacific Hwy N, then onto the Spirit Lake Hwy through the town of Toutle and up the Spirit Lake Hwy to the Johnston Ridge observatory. We should reach the observatory around 2:00 or 2:30, allowing plenty of daylight to allow you to check out the observatory and/or the numerous trails in the area There is an $8.00 entrance fee to go into the observatory, there is no fee to drive through the St. Helens national monument area. http://www.mshslc.org/fee-information/ In past drives we have had enough members with lifetime or annual park passes to get everyone in for free, they allow the holder to admit 3 other people to get in free with them. So pack a lunch, pack your camera, your spirit of adventure and come join us!!