Mount St. Helens (tourist route)

May 29, 2005

Seemed like a nice enough day for a 3 hour drive to see our local active volcano. Also thought we would tack on a little walk in the wasteland.

Yeah, so, we walked this way...	and that way...

and that way and this way...

Even watched the little movie they have at the visitor center. We were socked in clouds. Didn't see a darn thing.

lol. I could almost see it coming!  :)

August 27, 2000

Geez... I haven't been to Mt. Rainier for more than 10 years... oh, wait! Sorry... let's try again.

Geez... I haven't been to Mt. St. Helens for more than 10 years... (hmm... that sounds awfully familiar!)

Kay. Now that that gooberishness is out of the way, I can begin.

Do you remember where you were May 18, 1980? I do. I was 8. I remember driving down I-5 Southbound in the back seat of my dad's powder-blue VW rabbit on our way to his house and seeing this gigundo mushroom puff in the sky ahead. That's pretty much all I remember about that day. We didn't get the layer of ash that Eastern Washington got because the winds didn't really carry much to the North... it mostly went East.

I think I've been down here once since that fateful day, although I don't really remember and can't really place when that would have been. So, going down here today was like going here for the first time in over 20 years.

From the first Visitor Center, you get a distant view of the mountain, but more impressively, you get a view of the mud-flow track. The first thing that amazed me about this is how wide it is. The North fork of the Toutle River still inhabits the bed and has cut its own track over the past 20 years (geological evolution at work!)

Next, I was amazed at the lack of regrowth in the area immediately surrounding the volcano. Those areas nearest the mountain remain completely barron... like the eruption just happened a couple of years ago. On Johnston ridge, where the final visitor center is located, there are some shrubs on the ground (as you see in the picture below), but the simple fact that this area is not fully revegetated with ferns and wildflowers and blueberries only speaks to the power of the Earth... that in the span of a few short seconds a very large area could be so completely wiped out that even 20 years later, nothing would grow in the soil. That the eruption had more power than just the amount of ash it dumped or the top of the mountain that is now strewn across the countryside... That the gases and chemicals released and shoved with full force into the dirt and soil so hard and so deep would have such a lasting impact on the ecosystem. This area looks like it was dropped here from another place... scooped up from a desert and plopped in the middle of lush Northwest forests. The boundaries are as abrupt as that. Very scary. Very powerful. Very soothing to know that no matter what we (people) do to the Earth, that nature is five-million times more powerful than we could ever be, both constructively and destructively.