Mount Saint Helens

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In South Western Washington lies one of the youngest mountains on the Cascade Mountain Range... Mt St Helens.  Like most of the mountains along the Cascade Range, St Helens is a volcano, one of the most active in the world.  On May 10, 1980, the mountain reawakened, and the devastation was incredible.  I've visited there several times, and even more than 20 years after the awesome event, I still marvel at the display of power that "Mother Nature" is able to deliver in a blink of an eye... it sure makes you feel small. 

The area is now known as the Mt St Helens Volcanic National Monument, and is even a more popular place to visit.  It is a prime example of nature's ability to adapt to difficulty, and is truly incredible.

Before the blast

Before the eruption, Mt St Helens was a beautiful recreation area.  Spirit Lake, at the base of the mountain, and formed by an earlier landslide may hundreds of years ago, was a popular summer destination.  

This is a USGS photo of the mountain, taken in 1979... the summer before the eruption.

These pictures were taken from a pictures on the wall on one of the several welcome centers along the way to the Volcanic Monument.

The Eruption of a Lifetime
After months of shaking and swelling, a minor 5.5 magnitude quake touched off the most massive landslide in recorded history.  The entire North face of the mountain fell into the valley below, which released millions of pounds of pressure from the throat of the volcano, and Mt St Helens Roared to live.

Massive Destruction

On the day of the blast, there were several logging camps operating in the area.  This picture was taken by an unfortunate logger as he tried to escape the pyroclastic flows that flowed down the valleys around the mountain.

Two views from the same ridge

I took the second picture in 2001... there was a picture showing what the view was from that location before the blast... its VERY different!  This will take a while to load, but its worth it!

This sign really brings home the importance the locals place on the mountain, and the day it became famous.

Marking out the Damage

As you enter the Monument, a marker along the side of a bridge shows you the region affected when Mt St Helens briefly came back to life.

Trees for miles around St Helens were blown over like matchsticks, coming to rest in the direction the shockwave and winds from the massive blast were coming from: The mountain.

Weyerhaeuser owned much of the property that was damaged in the blast, and the various camps around the mountain were heavily damaged.

Caribou Herd

One of the side effects of having the trees removed is a great area for grasses and clovers... favorites of deer and caribou.  This herd moved into the valleys around the volcano shortly after the grasses returned, and now remain there year-round.  The river you see on the far side of the meadow changes its course every few years, as there is no bedrock for a firm channel... you can see the path it took a couple of years ago, now a dry river bed.  This area was inundated by a massive, 300-foot high wall of mud, part of the massive landslide created when thousands of tons of glacial ice melted, suddenly finding themselves thousands of feet below the snow line, and covered in hot volcanic material. 

The first good view.

At the head of the valley: the object that caused it all.  Along the road to Johnston Ridge, which is across form the crater itself, there are several turnouts, this one, near Weyerhaeuser's Forest Information Center, provides you with the first 'good' view of the young mountain 

The view of the mountain is impressive and eerie at the same time. Trees for miles around are all the same age: young. The Old Growth that was there before the blast was knocked down, or scorched to death. Billions of board feet were recovered, but that didn't even make a dent on what was wasted on the ground.

Slowly Recovering

As you get closer to the volcano, you can see how the slow progress of plant life has not fully made it to the mountains sides... the entire blast zone was sterilized: every plant, animal, and microbe was killed. Recovery is obvious, but slow.

Mountain Flowers

Mountain flowers are flourishing in the abundant sun. Normally, these plants struggle to get enough light, and are limited to patches of high mountain meadows.

Down in the hummocks

To really get a feel for what the mountain did, you have to take a hike on the many trails down in the valley floor... its both beautiful and eerie at the same time.

Awesome Beauty

The view from Johnston's Ridge, which was renamed after the blast after a USGS geologist who had the unfortunate task of monitoring the equipment on the day of the blast, and who called his headquarters moments before the blast hit him. More than 100 feet of the top of the ridge was eroded away by the trees and boulders that passed by at over 300 miles per hour.

Johnston's Ridge

The US Forest Service runs a Volcanic Observatory, which doubles as an information center.

Shaking still happens

Earthquakes are still common on the mountain, even 20 years later.  A few days before I visited in 2000, they had a fairly busy day at the ridge.

St Helens is one of the most monitored regions in the nation.

Awesome

The view from Johnston's Ridge is truly impressive.

Spirit Lake

Falling FAR short of its previous beauty, Spirit Lake is actually recovering faster than scientists expected that it would.

New Beauty

While Spirit Lake met its demise with the blast, Coldwater Lake got its birth.

The new lake is now becoming a popular place to fish

Piles of rocks like these are all over the place... they were chunks of the mountain, thrown thousands of yards during the blast.

Awesome display of power

This tree protrudes from the ground, blown through solid granite.  It clearly shows the destructive force of the blast, and gives you a sense of the destructive forces that happened on an otherwise normal Sunday.

Slow recovery

The blast killed every animal, plant, even the bacteria in the dirt... recovery has been slow, but steady.  Every visit I make to the mountain, I see more and more plant life, even trees.  Eventually, the area will restore itself to the lush environment it was before the eruption.. All's that's needed is time.

 Page added in 2003