Ape Canyon at Mt. St. Helens

Ape Canyon is named after a 1924 Sasquatch sighting, and while I did not see any bigfoots, I was lucky enough to have many wildlife sightings in late August! Mount St. Helens is an extremely special place for me (it quite literally changed my life), and this rare sighting made it even more magical.

As someone who frequently hikes alone, I am often asked "Aren't you afraid of bears?" In hundreds and hundreds of hikes, I've only ever encountered bears on the trail 4 times - once in Mt. Rainier, once in Lake Tahoe, once in the Olympic National Park, and now... at Ape Canyon!

In addition to our bear sighting, we saw at least 30 mountain goats, including babies. I highly recommend Ape Canyon to anyone hoping for a wildlife sighting! Bring binoculars, keep your eyes open, and watch out for the prolific bear scat on the trail.

Our beautiful black bear, as seen safely from a zoom lens

Fast Facts on Ape Canyon

The Ape Canyon trail is located in the Mount St. Helens area of the Gifford Pincho National Forest, in Washington state - you'll hike on a shared use trail up a gentle incline before reaching the canyon views. The trail is only accessible during snow free months.

• About 2 hours from Portland or 3.5 hours from Seattle (parking lot pin here)

  
  

• Northwest Forest Pass or National Parks Pass required - payment station available at Lava Canyon nearby ($5 for a day pass)

• 11 miles out-and-back, with about 2,000 feet elevation gain

• Leashed dogs and mountain bikes are allowed (for some reason the WTA website incorrectly states no dogs allowed, but the official NPS website does not. We took our dog, and saw many others on the trail)

• Washington Trails Association link

• AllTrails link

• National Forest Service link

The First Few Miles - Hiking the Ridgeline

You'll park in a small lot by the Lava Canyon Trailhead (a great overflow parking lot). There is a pit toilet at Lava Canyon, but no drinking water.

One of the first things you'll notice as you begin your hike is what looks like a dried riverbed to your left. It is actually a "lahar" - a lava flow from the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. You'll hike through old growth forest, a rare sight by Mount St. Helens. Some of these massive trees are the only ones in the region to have survived the eruption.

A view of the lahar from the trail - very scary to imagine it as flowing lava!

The trail is very gently graded and soft. It is shared with mountain bikes, so be mindful. We had around 20 bikers pass us during the hike, and all were very polite and announced their presence.

As we slowly gained elevation, we crossed the treeline and began to see amazing views into the canyon. To the left of the trail is the lahar, and to the right is the actual Ape Canyon, so you're basically walking on a ridge.

I started to see a lot of bear scat along the trail! The mountain ash (Rowan) trees currently have bright orange berries, which the bears are clearly snacking on, because their scat is also bright orange.

We also began to see little white dots on the mountains, which our binoculars confirmed to be mountain goats! I would have been happy just seeing evidence of bears and faraway goats, but our wildlife sightings would only improve from here.

This is one of the first views to the right of the trail, into Ape Canyon. It only gets better from here!

The Bear!!

After about 5 miles of hiking, you'll reach the volcanic plains at the end of the Ape Canyon trail (not really the end! You can continue on the Loowit Trail or Plains of Abraham Trail to make this a multi-day trek).

This is where we saw our bear! The trail is on the edge of the ridge, overlooking the lahar, but it curves so you get a great view of where you are headed. Just off the trail up ahead, on the sloping cliff, we saw a huge black bear snacking on Rowan berries. This particular bear was a light brown, but contrary to popular belief, black bears can be a range of color. Grizzlies don't live anywhere near Helens, and this bear had very obviously "black bear" features such as a sloped nose instead of a dished nose.

You can't see the bear in this photo I took with my iPhone, but it shows where we were on the trail when we saw it. The bear was on the slope of the hill topped by trees. The natural curve of the trail provided the perfect view.

We stayed for a few minutes enjoying the view from a safe distance, with our binoculars and our zoom lens camera. We decided it was safe to continue hiking, as the bear was quite far from the trail (if it had been a grizzly I would have turned around). I took my bear spray out just in case, but was not frightened at all.

Another beautiful photo of the bear, taken with a zoom lens camera

We saw more and more bear scat as we got closer to the trail junction with Loowit and the Plains of Abraham, but just the one bear. We got another great view of it as we continued on the trail, but gave it plenty of space. It was definitely aware of our presence and looked directly at us a few times, but did not seem to mind.

Again, you can't see the bear in this iPhone photo, but this was our second viewing spot. Notice the volcano monitoring equipment! The bear was beyond this, near the trees. We didn't dare get any closer.

The Goats!!

After the bear viewing, we reached the trail junction with the Loowit Trail. Mount St. Helens is RIGHT THERE in front of you at this point! It would be even more incredible on a clear sunny day. The landscape gets very barren and rocky here, a stark contrast to the old growth forest you just hiked through.

Our "view" of Mount St. Helens! Still beautiful, but not as spectacular as it would be on a clear day. Notice the white dots on the top of the hill in the foreground - a herd of goats!

The white dots we had been eyeing throughout our hike came into focus - herds of mountain goats!! The majority were off in the distance, traversing the cliffs on the side of the mountain. A mother and baby pair were much closer and walked across the trail after we passed by. Most recent trip reports from Ape Canyon (as of September 2026) mention goat sightings, so now is the time to go if you want to see them!

The closest pair of goats to the trail - photo taken with a zoom lens. Mountain goats may look friendly, but have been known to charge. Keep your distance out of respect for the wild animals!

We were so excited with all the animals that we almost forgot the entire goal of the hike was to see Ape Canyon. After watching the bear and the goats for a while, we remembered that the actual mountain and surrounding terrain itself was just as special and beautiful.

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  The barren terrain at the base of the mountain

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  The actual "Ape Canyon" rock feature

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  The beginning of the canyon

We crossed the canyon and hiked a little further past the junction with the Loowit Trail. I highly recommend doing this! You'll get a great view of the Plains of Abraham, and possibly more goats. There are several campsites here and we passed many parties setting up camp for the night as they did the full Loowit Loop. There is an elk herd that lives in the Plains, and we've seen them before from Windy Ridge, but not this time.

The trail into the Plains of Abraham, complete with a rainbow! Several goats were hanging out in the distance. Elk are frequently seen here too.

It was already getting late, and starting to sprinkle a little, so we resisted the urge to explore the Plains of Abraham more and decided to head back to the car. It is a 5-ish mile hike each way, for a total of 10-11 miles round trip. The trail was so gently graded that the 2,000 foot elevation gain is barely noticable.

We did see the bear again on the way back! It traveled a little further away on the same hill, so it was just a tiny black dot. We pointed it out to a few other hikers, because there's no way anyone would notice unless they knew to look for it.

Of course, we ended our hike in the best possible way - parking lot instant ramen! On a gray, slightly drizzly early fall day, this was the coziest way to relax after a long hike.

Changing into Crocs, sweats, and making ramen is the best way to end a long hike!