The weather cleared during the night and we awoke to a gorgeous day with just a few tiny clouds. Our visibility woes gone, we decided to take a spin up to Mount St. Helens or what is left of her. Back in May of 1980, St. Helens put on a spectacular show when the mountain exploded, blowing away the northern slope, lopping 1800 feet off the peak and knocking down 200 square miles of Weyerhaeuser’s timber. The massive earth movement re-contoured the Toutle River upper valley, buried many square miles of timber under 150 feet of ash and sent many lahars down the lower Toutle blocking it, the Cowlitz and ultimately depositing tons of slop into the Columbia River. Fifty-some folks were killed and the damage was 1.1 billion dollars in 1980 bucks.
When we arrived, the weather cooperated by being quite clear. Plainly visible from many spots along the park road are the remains of absolute devastation. Almost all the terrain on the north and west sides of the mountain remains almost completely devoid of any vegetation. The Toutle River is busy carving new channels through the gigantic ash deposits. The water in the Toutle is the gray color of the ash. Flat areas, however, are regenerating a rich habitat and many critters have colonized the area.
We finally made it to the end of the WA-504 which terminates at the Johnston Ridge Visitor Center and Observatory. The views of St. Helens four miles from the visitor center are stunning. There is a big bulge on the crater floor where the mountain has tried to rebuild itself. The top of the bulge has a big crack in it which emanates steam visible for miles. From the visitor center 11,000 foot plus Mount Adams a bit further east can also be seen. It is also a volcano. We could see a small elk herd wandering around on the newly reconfigured Toutle watershed.
As we departed, we spotted what appeared to be massive slides on the lower west slope of St. Helens that put up plumes of dust visible for at least 7 miles. This may have been the only time in my life where I actually get to see some geology happening.
We exited the park to the west and soon arrived in Toledo where we turned off to finish our drive home along the north shore of the Cowlitz River. We found a spectacular view from this road where we could see the volcanoes Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier and Mount Adams from a single location. We are delighted with the clear weather.
We didn’t do too well on our animal sightings today. We spotted some vultures, a hawk, an osprey and a partially flattened porcupine on the yellow lines of WA-504. Can’t win ’em all.
Some pictures of this amazing place can be seen by clicking here