Mt. St. Helens

Mt. St. Helens before the eruption.
Column of smoke and ash from blast that reached 15 miles high and circled the Earth.
What Nanc saw when she visited in 2006.
What we saw.
Avalanche debris in the Toutle River Valley with new forest growing on the side.
Trees buried in debris and new trees growing.
Elk with calf among new growth.
Beaver dam in blast area.

We spent three days at the Mt. St. Helens RV Park in Castle Rock, Washington with the intention of seeing the mountain which erupted on September 18, 1980. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with the summit being completely socked in with clouds the entire time we were there. We did go to three different visitors centers that each had different information on the volcano. The state's Silver Lake Center had a movie, a walk through model and a lot of historical info about the area. A Forest Learning Center run by Weyerhaeuser, which owns much of the 230 square miles of trees leveled by the blast, showed how the damaged trees were harvested and then replanted. The Johnston Ridge Observatory, located only 5 miles from the crater, has views of the crater and emerging lava dome, an excellent movie and many personal accounts of people who survived the explosion. This center, named for David A. Johnston a vulcanologist who was one of 57 people killed by the eruption, is at the end of the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway. The highway offers views down into the Toutle River Valley where you can still see the mud flat from the huge debris avalanche 28 years ago. You could also see how the land that was replanted is once again supporting a forest and how areas left to nature now have many plants and animals. While we were very disappointed at not getting to see the summit we will put this high on our list for a return visit when we hope to climb to the edge of the crater.