10/27/08 - Mt. St. Helens

 We drove up to Mt. St. Helens on 10/27, which was a nice sunny day. The drive up was really pretty with lots of fall color. As we neared the top, we could see the devastation that was still there even though the volcano erupted in 1980. A volunteer at the visitor center said the giant avalanche moved northward at 110-155 mph, covering an area of about 24 sq miles. When the lateral blast began a few seconds later, the velocity grew to around 700 mph, causing devastation as far as 19 miles from the volcano as you will see in the pictures. Of course, anyone who didn’t evacuate died with the mountain that they loved. It was amazing that nothing had grown back. There is a lot of lava rock and ashes still there. After visiting the Johnston Ridge Observatory, we took a hike that takes you close to Mt. St. Helens. We could see a little snow on there and there was some steam coming out of it. If you look close in one of the pictures, you can see the steam. We didn’t hike as close as we could have, because I chickened out. In one place the trail was about 6 inches wide with very loose rock, and a small decline. I could just see myself sliding on the loose rock and not stopping, so I decided I had gotten a close enough view of the volcano!