Mount St. Helens scenic-drive loop could boost tourism

Imagine a scenic Washington driving loop on good roads offering a chance to travel up the Columbia River Gorge, climb Beacon Rock, hike to a waterfall on the Wind River, swim in Swift Reservoir and savor a stunning, close-up view of Mount St. Helens' southern flank.

Drivers can make that trip today when the roads are snow-free, but the ride will be rough in places, and between Carson and Cougar, and tourist services will be scarce or nonexistent.

Twenty people gathered at Skamania Lodge, on the banks of the Columbia River, earlier this month, and a similar number met in Woodland, to imagine a new focus for tourism in Southwest Washington. The Stevenson group included state legislators, county officials, environmentalists, parks and port managers and a representative of the Cowlitz Tribe.

They discussed the concept of a marketing strategy based on Mount St. Helens, a volcano with a name that is instantly recognizable around the world.

The meetings were the brainchild of Jon Rose, president of Olympic Property Group, the real estate arm of Pope Resources, a midsized timber company based in Port Gamble on the Olympic Peninsula. Rose was looking for buy-in from people who could make it happen. And he got what he came for — with a few caveats.

Pope Resources owns 25 percent of the private land in Skamania County. Most of its holdings are north of Swift Reservoir. The company became a player in the county in 2007, after county commissioners imposed a moratorium on development in the Swift area to slow a development boom that threatened to gobble up tens of thousands of acres of commercial forest land. At the time, the county was developing its first land-use plan for its remote unzoned north end.

Pope Resources was late to the party. In April 2007, the company submitted a plan to develop 3,680 acres of its 24,000-acre tree plantation as a planned recreational development offering up to 800 units of housing. Shut out by the moratorium, Rose reacted by dividing all 24,000 acres into 20-acre lots and recording the deeds. County commissioners responded by freezing new building permits on parcels 20 acres or larger in the Swift area.

After he cooled off, Rose rethought the situation.

In January, the Olympic Property Group and the Columbia Land Trust announced a plan to protect 20,000 acres of the company's land from development through conservation easements. Eventually, Rose hopes to develop another 4,000 acres of less environmentally sensitive timber in the Swift area with homes, a hotel, restaurants and other amenities.

A bigger vision

But Rose doesn't want his company to risk pioneering high-end tourism in this remote country on its own. "My company cannot go change the world," he told the Skamania Lodge gathering.

Instead, he'd like to be one of many players in establishing a scenic loop around Mount St. Helens that draws on the region's dramatic geological history — the great basalt flows that covered 40,000 square miles of the Columbia Basin, the ice age floods that carved the Columbia Gorge, and the repeated eruptions of Mount St. Helens that shaped the region over millennia.

He calls his idea the "Ring of Fire."

"We haven't capitalized on Mount St. Helens," Rose told the gathering. "We need a unifying theme that links Woodland with Carson. All through the Cascade Range, everyone has pretty mountains, pretty rivers, pretty lakes. What makes us unique?"

People who live near world-class features like Mount St. Helens often tend to take them for granted, Rose said. A native of Connecticut, he said he is constantly amazed at the Pacific Northwest's jaw-dropping scenery.

"When somebody goes across the country to travel to your place, it's a compliment," he said. "People pass through and decide they want to live there. It brings new faces, ideas, energy."

Loops are better for tourists, he says, because they simplify trip planning and eliminate backtracking.

Infrastructure needed

Rose has an ally in Skamania County Commissioner Paul Pearce, who sees endless potential for tourism in his county if the road system and tourist amenities existed to make it happen.

"We have a lot of folks visiting but we don't have a lot staying," Pearce told the gathering. One reason: "You can check into (Portland's) Benson Hotel, get up in the morning and do the entire Columbia Gorge and get back for dinner."

As for Mount St. Helens, he said, the dead-end drive up Highway 504 up to Johnston Ridge deters many visitors. They take a picture from a distant viewpoint "and think they've seen the mountain!"

Skamania County has long sought to upgrade its own roads and connecting Forest Service roads that link Carson with Woodland through the area north of Swift Reservoir.

In 2007, the county asked the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board to extend Highway 503 to include the county's Wind River Highway and Curly Creek Road and a section of the Forest Service's 90 Road that the county maintains.

The county pays more than $100,000 annually to keep the roads plowed in winter. The Forest Service also has expressed an interest in getting out from under maintaining the west end of the 90 Road, which is no longer needed to access federal timber.

But the board rejected the application, saying the road system did not qualify as serving an "area of statewide significance."

The 90 Road currently has 25 failing culverts and several failing slopes, Pearce said. "We're hoping, once we get it to standard, to take Highway 503 to Carson. That would take legislative action."

In addition, a committee studying the future of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument has proposed upgrades to Forest Service Road 25 and U.S. Highway 12 to the north.

"That's the big loop," Pearce said.

A scenic byway

Rose recently hired consultant Mike Usen to study what it would take to get a designated scenic byway that encircles the mountain.

Scenic byways can be designated either by the federal government or by the state, Usen said, but they require ongoing sponsorship by active organizations that are willing to promote their features. Washington has 23 scenic byways, including four designated by the federal government.

Their main purpose is preservation, protection and enhancement of natural, archaeological, scenic, recreational, cultural and historic features, Usen said. Tourism-related economic development is a side benefit.

John Hitron, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manager at Carson National Fish Hatchery, has experience with designation of federal scenic loops. He echoed Usen's observation.

"Do not focus on job creation, generation of tax revenue or residential development," Hitron advised. Instead, he said, a scenic loop should preserve and interpret natural resources, provide access for seniors and the disabled, and feature Native American history.

"Incorporate as much interactivity as possible," he said. "People need something to do. Bring them together. If building homes is your goal, don't tie it to this because they are mutually exclusive."