Gaze down 3,000 feet the opposite direction to the harsh upper Coldwater Creek valley. Farther to the west, the Toutle River glistens against dark mudflow deposits. The Truman Trail descends through the spillover deposit, on a hillside facing the open crater maw. The trail winds through the deeply eroded valley, crossing chalk-white billows of firm sand 10 feet deep that are cut with erosion channels. At times, hikers must scramble up and down ridges of loose pumice - in other places, it's like walking on a beach.
Wooden posts mark the route, which is otherwise hard to follow.
Across the dry valley, a gleaming snowy mantle covers Mount St. Helens. The landscape may be mostly barren and dry, but the streams flowing through have made little oases, with mossy beds of green. The trail descends about 400 feet, then flattens out on the broad pumice plain between Spirit Lake and the volcano. The lake is a few hundred yards to one side, a vast raft of timber floating on it. The small lakes seen from the Boundary Trail are on the other side of the trail.