A Quick Visit to Mount St. Helens
Last weekend the forecast called for a short window of sunny weather. Theresa and I were anxious to get outdoors and do something, but we also wanted a change of pace. Early in the week I had watched an episode of “Raging Planet” on the Discovery Channel and the idea was planted to pay a visit to Mount St. Helens.
I won’t go into any great detail over the story of this volcano’s famous eruption as I’m sure most are quite familiar with it. Personally, I’ve watched dozens of documentaries featuring the event, but despite my proximity, I’ve never paid a visit to the mountain. A quick search showed that although the Johnston Ridge Observatory (named for the volcanologist David A. Johnston who lost his life during the eruption)was closed for the season, the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center was open as well as the road as far as the Coldwater Ridge.
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- Looking in the Caldera. Photograph by Steve Weileman
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- One of the valleys that suffered from the lahar that followed the eruption. Photograph by Steve Weileman
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- Steve waiting for a peek in the clouds. Photograph by Theresa Weileman
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- Here are some of the neighboring peaks. Photograph by Steve Weileman
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- Here you can easily see how much mountain is missing after the eruption. Photograph by Steve Weileman
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- Hoffstadt Creek Bridge built after the 1980 eruption. Photograph by Steve Weileman
So off we went. I can’t begin to explain how much more impressive the mountain and the story becomes when you get within the proximity of the mountain. It’s one thing to hear about how the lateral blast flatten trees 18 miles from the epicenter, but quite another to actually be that far from the mountain and imagine the destruction unleashed on all the forest between you and the mountain. It’s really impossible to imagine that much force. In the videos you see of the north face sliding away and then the explosion you lose the sense of scale, but when you see such a massive base and the abrupt line marking the missing half you realize that the explosion was beyond belief. I want to go back and re-watch every show I’ve ever seen on the event.
We defiantly will be back in the spring when everything opens and we can get closer.
