On the road to Mt. St. Helens

The six of us were talking about going to see Mt. St. Helens since it was so close to where we were staying in Tualatin. Seems hardly possible that this volcano erupted over 31 years ago, scorching over 230 square miles of forest. We wondered what the topography now looked like after this catastrophic event. Sandy and Sherry are checking out one of the maps at the first Visitor center.

One look at the ridge reveals that there is still little tree growth in this section of the monument. Lots of downed trees probably still rest in the same place as they did after the blast on May 18, 1980.
Before the first eruption, the summit had 11 glaciers & smaller, perennial ice fields. The first eruption eliminated 70 % of the glacial ice. The blast created a immense bowl which collects and stores up annual snowfall. Each year about another 25 feet of snow is accumulated. All the different changes resulted in the eventual formation of Crater Glacier. The eruption caused the largest landslide in recorded history and removed the upper 1306 ft. of the volcano. Those facts are amazing themselves, but what I found really astounding was that the extremely high temperatures from the blast caused a built up of steam & pressure inside the trees. The steam and pressure actually blew the bark off of them!We took a walk around a portion of Coldwater Lake. When a landslide from the eruption of Mt. St. Helens slid into the North Fork Toutle River Valley, it blocked the flow of Coldwater Creek and created the lake, which is about 5 miles long. Nearby Spirit Lake is now twice as large as it was before, but only half as deep because of all the ash deposited it it.Now, instead of a gray, barren area covered with ash, there are cattails growing in the marshy areas close to the lake. In the last 31 years, over 18 million trees have been planted by hand in areas affected by the eruption.
Here is another view of what Mt. St. Helens now looks like from the boardwalk at Coldwater Lake. Looks pretty serene doesn't it? I'm glad I wasn't around here at the time it went off!