I'd never been to Mt. St. Helens. Living so close, you sometimes never go see the things that most people think are amazing. I knew I wanted to. It was one of the "Quad" that I wanted to see. So while we were staying down with my Uncle, we took a day and went. We hiked for hours, saw all the sites, listened to a few talks, watched a movie, read everything in the discover center and even had a picnic! We had a great day and I'm so glad we got the chance to go.
For those that don't know. Mt. St. Helens is an active volcano here in Washington. It's one of the only really active ones around. Here is a little article from the website that I found.
At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted.
Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. Nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown down or buried beneath volcanic deposits. At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted 9 hours, but Mount St. Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments.
In 1982, the President and Congress created the 110,000-acre National Volcanic Monument for research, recreation, and education. Inside the Monument, the environment is left to respond naturally to the disturbance.
The May 18, 1980 eruption was but one more event in the volcano's 50,000 year long eruptive history. During the 4,000 years preceding 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted enough lava, pumice and ash to build the entire mountain we see today. When you know what to look for you can find evidence of these eruptions all around the volcano. Look along exposed riverbanks for ancient mudflow deposits or along steep roadsides for the layers of ashy and pumice that drifted northeast of the volcano.
Here are just a few of the pictures from the day.
This was at one of the centers we stopped at along the way to look at the view.
Funny story- Landon was sitting on this and fell of the side. At some point he reached up and grabbed the antler and held on, feet danging off the ground. Then he picked up his binoculars and had a little look into the bushes....while still hanging there! My dad and cousin were laughing so hard. only my kid would hang on just for the view.
Landon thought it was so neat that we were looking at a real live Volcano!
The view. Isn't it amazing!! It blew that whole side right off! See the ground in front? It used to be a massive Forest. The trees were covered in over 300 feet of ash! Then pumice rock was packed on top when the blast happened. It's crazy how things are so different.
Sean, Me and my Uncle Jim hiking on the trails. I got sooo much sun that day....my face is now peeling because of it!
Us in front of the Mountain(Volcano).
After we hiked around the trails, we drove down to one of the many lakes that was made by the blast. It was so beautiful down there. It's amazing how thins can change and form the land around you and it will never be the same.
My favorite picture from the day. Taken at the lake. The sun was setting and it just looked so beautiful. You can also see Mt. St. Helens on the left side.
I'm so glad we went. It was so neat to see everything and learn what happened. I recommend it to anyone who was thinking about making the drive up. It really is worth it.
