Mt. St. Helens: A 30 year perspective.

Mt. St. Helens

On our way to Oregon before going to Vegas, Tom and I took a scenic route over the pass at Mt. St. Helens.  I had always wanted to see the mountain up close, and I wasn't disappointed.  Even in it's broken top state it is still a majestic sight.  We could even see a bit of 'steam' coming out of the crater.

It's been over 32 years since the mountain had it's big eruption.  Tom and I were in the 6th Grade when it happened.  It made quite an impression because we were both living in Oregon at the time.  Tom was living in LaPine, and I was in Halfway.  We didn't get any ash fallout in Halfway, not that I remember anyway, but it was certainly talked about A LOT in school and on the news.  From what I hear of the locals, where we live now was hit pretty hard by the ash.  Even in our yard, if you dig down about an inch or two into the soil, you can find a layer of Mt. St. Helens' ash.

This was one of the reader boards we found on a roadside stop as we approached the mountain.  This guy was camping on the day it exploded.  He happened to take some pictures before deciding he better get out of there.  It's a good thing he left when he did, because if he waited any longer he would have been covered by the ash cloud and probably never heard from again.  Pretty amazing pictures!

The national parks decided to leave the area to recover in it's natural state.  Because of that, you can still see a lot of the trees that were downed by the blast.  There are some small trees growing, but not nearly as many as there were before the blast.  It really does have a bit of a desolate look and feel to it.  One thing I noticed, at least while we were there, we heard no birds singing.  I didn't see any birds around either.  Lots of butterflies, but no birds.

This is Spirit Lake.  The lake itself seems to have recovered, but it still has a lot of floating logs left over from the blast.  Tom and I were amazed at how many there were still floating on the water 32 years later.

Some parts were so thick with the logs on the water that it looked like dry land.

It was really an interesting and impressive drive and I'm glad we took the time to do it.  I recommend it to anyone to go see.  There are interpretive centers, ranger talks and you can even hike the mountain.  I think we will go back sometime and spend more time there.

In other news:

Preston and Keaton both start school tomorrow at WSU.  They are busy getting all of their things together.  Winston still has another week of summer vacation.  I will be applying for an office job tomorrow.  We'll see what happens.