For my Cousin's third full day, we went down to The Mountain.  It'd been over a year since I was there last - quite a while, for me, anyway.


We were both hungry, so we stopped at the Country Cousin's Family Restaurant.  They have old pictures laminated into the tables, and old artifacts spread all over the place... its a very interesting place to eat!

Oh... the food's pretty good, too!

Our first stop was the first of the Mt St Helens Welcome Centers.  Once part of the National Park Service, this center has been turned over to the Washington State Parks Service.

The first thing I noticed?  The Osprey nest is missing.  I guess it fell in the wind storms this winter.

Inside, a short movie explained the various volcanic evidences were were going to see driving up to The Mountain, and give a history of the area before - and during - the eruption.

My Cousin, standing with the famous before and after pictures... its pretty incredible how much things changed!

He's a history buff, so we spent some time looking through the displays they had set up.

I like the drawings made in the 1850's of the eruption that happened before the 1980 eruption that everyone knows about.

 
From the Welcome Center, you get a good shot of Mt St Helens over the top of Silver Lake, which was formed several thousand years ago from an eruption similar to the 1980 eruption: A mudslide dammed the river feeding the lake, and formed the scene we see today.
 

 
Our next stop was at the truck... which includes a look at the KOMO News car, which had been caught in the mudslide, and the camper.  They used to be mentioned in the videos at the welcome center, but they were left out of the newer versions.

 
We trekked on to the "A" frame house, which has a gift shop. 

We actually got to talk to the guy who built the A-Frame, and was planning on moving into his new house (he lived - and still does - in Centralia).

After 28 years, he's selling the property.  He'd fished the river since he was a kid, but has been disappointed with it since the eruption. 

 
This bridge was constructed after the eruption to provide access into the blast zone.  Its actually at the fringe of where the trees were knocked down.

A stand of tall trees across the valley shows how the blast went over the top of them, protected by the ridge they sit behind.

 
Weyerhaeuser's Forest Learning Center is also a fun stop.  Everything in the area changed for Weyerhaeuser - the timber company that owned the land affected by the blast.

It's interesting to see the blast from their perspective... they lost millions of dollars!

 
From the Forest learning center, a commanding view of the valley can be had.

The large, flat area wasn't there before the blast... the original floor of the valley is some 4-600 feet down, forever covered by the massive landslide.

 
A little farther along, near the Coldwater Observatory, which is now closed, the mountain looms closer, and - if you know where to look - you can still see the trees blown over by the blast.

The regrowth is happening FAST!  A lot of what was once very easy to see is now largely covered by the new trees.

 
Heading down into the valley floor, the Mountain seems to get very tall.

We stopped at the Hummocks Trail, which takes you through the landslide area.  The trail was damaged, though, and we decided that we'd only go to the Boundary Trail Junction.

 
Along the start of the trail, information placards explain what you're looking at, although its starting to become covered by the return of the forest.  It won't be too long before it'll block the view of the Mountain altogether.

Its interesting to be able to see it happen. 

We noticed a hawk flying overhead, looking for food... not sure what kind it was, but it was pretty big!

 
Our destination was Johnston Ridge, which was covered in flowers.  I also noticed a lot more grass and bushes... its pretty striking how GREEN it all looked!

 
The view heading up to the Observatory is awesome!

We watched a display that walked us through the events of the eruption... a lot happened in a short time, that's for sure!

 
They have several exhibits set up inside the observatory, and we spent the time before the movie checking those out.

The spider display showed the systems developed by the Cascade Volcanic Observatory, the USGS office in our region.  They're now used on other volcanoes, and they provide an amazing amount of data for such a small package.

 
"Vancouver, Vancouver, This is It! "

And with those words, Mt St Helens blew, and about 10 second later, David Johnston passed into history.  What an incredible view he had, though!

The video is awesome, and it ends with the curtain rising on the Mountain that caused all the ruckus almost 30 years ago now.

 
we went outside and took some shots of The Mountain.

No matter how many times I come here, its pretty incredible!

 
After a few last looks, I took a set of pictures so I could use the Panorama tool to join them together... then we headed home.

As always, we had a great time checking out The Mountain.

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