Mt. St. Helens, WA

Many of the roads in and around St. Helens have been
closed due to the severe winter of 2007-2008.
Bridges and sections of road had been washed out so
our trip through the park was abbreviated. Since the eruption of 1980, the
park has made some remarkable recoveries.
This is a photo of Toutle Valley.

You can still see the debris from the volcano lying in the valley.
Shrubbery has been able to grow along Toutle Creek and
elk feed there.

Looking down the Toutle Valley you can see the volcanic ash
that in places was more than 30 feet thick.

After the eruption, the Weyerhaeuser Lumber Company sent more than a
thousand loggers into the area to harvest as much of the
230 square miles of fallen timber.
After that, they sent more than 500 people to plant more
than 15 million trees over the next five years.
This is a picture of Noble Fir planted in 1983. Because
they are all the same age, size and species they make
a very uniform appearance.

The mountain is still 8400 feet tall. Because of the low
lying clouds we could not see the very top of Mt. St. Helens.

This is a twenty foot layer of volcanic ash. It has been exposed
by a running mountain stream.

This is the closest vantage point to Mt. St. Helens.

The mountain and me - perfect together!

Before we left, the clouds lifted slightly. At the top left of
the picture you can see the part of Mt. St. Helens that
blasted apart.

We were about five miles from Mt. St. Helens. As the glaciers
on the top of the mountain melt, they form streams that have
eroded the volcanic ash.

The blast area extended for ten miles incinerating everything
with 600 degree volcanic gasses. Yet today, flowers
continue to bloom in the park.

We have seen Northern Cascades, the Olympic Mountains,
Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens and the Pacific Ocean. We have
spent six days in the state of Washington and are now looking
forward to several days in Oregon.