Goat Marsh MSH 12/15/2019

[jime]

Mt St Helens from Goat Marsh

Hiked to Goat Marsh Lake on a beautiful "fresh snow" Sunday.

As Bobcat describes in the field guide entry, Goat_Marsh_Lake_Hike
, this marsh was created about 400 years ago when one of Mt St Helens pyroclastic flows blocked Coldspring Creek.

The Lidar map gives a visual of how the pyroclastic flow filled in the landscape that is now Goat Marsh.

Lidar Map

We started from the Kalama Horse Camp Trailhead and took the ski trail along the river.

Kalama River Canyon in the Morning

Snow on the trail never amounted to more than one or two inches.

Another Mt St Helens View

Goat Mountain stayed mostly in the clouds today.

Goat Mountain

One last mountain shot.

Mt St Helens Close-Up

For more information about the Research Natural Area this paper provides a lot of great details. Goat Marsh RNA Pub 278

[RobinBaker]

How did you create the Lidar map? Caltopo?

[jime]

Correct, Caltopo. "Shaded relief" layer and print to a pdf or jpeg. I saved a jpeg file for the post.

For more Caltopo fun, select the google "Satellite" layer and zoom in to find the herd of Elk in the middle of Goat Marsh. (About 30 Elk). While we saw Elk tracks in the snow, didn't see them yesterday. Looks like a great place for Elk to hangout!