Mt. St. Helens

Having chosen a house but not being able to move into it yet, we had to take advantage of all the available time. During the winter months with the rain and cloud cover, it can be extremely difficult to impossible to see the mountains, especially the BIG ones. LOL

We took off to view Mt. St. Helen's. It seems so prominent from a distance, like from my house, (gosh I will never get over the view of the mountains from right here). Once we started to drive and were actually climbing, it seems as more of a hump within the surrounding mountains. Does that make sense? Anyway, from my house, it looks all rounded and snow capped, but as you can see, one side blasted of during the last eruption in 1980.

We learned about the area and how it was affected from the blast, saw the COMPLETELY cleared forest as well as bare trees that lay scattered like toothpicks from the force of the blast. You can see in some of the pictures the lush, green landscaping and then the bare dirt, showing the direction of the blast. At the Monument, pictures showed a beautiful sunny day at 9am May 17, 1980, then 8:35am May 18, 1980, PURE DESTRUCTION!! It's astounding to see! Surely a majestic sight!!!

 Heading up to Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

 Notice the ashen landscape vs. the lush vegetation, showing the destruction of the blast.

 You can see the lava/mud slide path. Also Mt. Rainier to the left.

 Look close, that's not toothpicks, but trees!

 The blast took out almost 230 sq miles of forest and reducing St. Helens height by about 1,313 feet

 SMOKIN'

My boyz taking a closer look. Here, we are 5 miles from the base.