Minnie Peak

Minnie Peak is a steep 5,610-foot summit in southwest Washington’s Cascade Range, near Coldwater Lake and Mount St. Helens. Named for a nearby mining claim where silver and copper were extracted, it rises about 3,000 feet above the Coldwater Creek valley in less than a mile and drains into both Coldwater and Miners creeks within the North Fork Toutle River basin. Its landscape reflects the Cascades’ long geological past, shaped by volcanic and tectonic activity and repeated Pleistocene glaciation. The peak and nearby Mount Whittier are composed of resistant granodiorite from the Spirit Lake pluton, formed about 20 million years ago. In 1980, Mount St. Helens’ lateral blast struck toward Minnie Peak and stripped vegetation from its slopes.

Washington · United States