I have always been fascinated by Mt. St. Helens, mainly because I had a pen-pal in elementary school who lived on the Oregon/Washington border and she used to tell me stories about visiting the mountain. I also always thought that it was the only active volcano in the continental United States, which I was promptly proved wrong about the moment we moved to Washington.
So for anyone who's been living under a rock for the past 30 years, Mt. St. Helens, in southern Washington state, erupted on May 18, 1980 in a massive explosion that literally blew off the entire top and side portion of the mountain, caused severe damage to the area and towns around it, and killed 57 people.
(On a side note, I had a horrifying moment when I realized how old I was a few days ago. We were planning the trip and Mr. V told me that the National Forest Service has been celebrating the 30th anniversary of the eruption. I knew that it erupted a little less than a year before I was born in 1981, but I guess I just wasn't thinking because I said "30th anniversary? There's no possible way that it has already been 30 years. It erupted less than a year before I was born.....ohhh...." That would be the moment when I think it really hit me that I am almost 30 years old. But anyway, back to the trip...)
This is what the mountain looked like before the 1980 eruption:
A few weeks before the eruption, a bulge began to form on the north side of the mountain (following several weeks of earthquakes and some very minor eruptions). I honestly can't even imagine seeing this, knowing full well that there would inevitably be a massive explosion when this bulge broke through the surface.
And on May 18th, around 8:30 in the morning, this happened:
All that was left, when the eruption was over, was this:
I think its safe to say that Mt. St. Helens is no longer a beautiful, majestic mountain (although there is a lava dome in the center of it, formed by the mountain slowly starting to rebuild itself, so maybe it will be big and beautiful again in the future).
So yesterday, Mr. V and I set off to visit Mt. St. Helens. It was definitely a very cool thing to see. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, which is nothing new to Washington, so we actually couldn't see the whole mountain, but we were able to see the crater, and since the mountain has lost thousands of feet off the top of it, we were told that the clouds really weren't covering too much of it. If they had just lifted a tiny bit, we would have been able to see the top.
I'm just happy that we got to see anything, because based on normal weather around here, and the live webcam set up at the mountain's viewing site this morning, many people come out here and see absolutely nothing because of the fog and clouds. I wanted to see the part of the mountain that had been blown off, and I did, so I was happy :-).
(park ranger at the visitor's center - if you look at the picture he's holding you can see the lava dome that has been growing in the crater for the past few years
(me at the visitor's center - before I gave in to the cold weather and changed into warmer clothes)
(driving to Mt. St. Helens)
(This place is a small visitor's center and an A-frame house that was destroyed during the eruption. The house is half buried in the ash from the explosion.)
(This is at the A-frame house...because you can't go anywhere in the mountains of Washington without finding a giant bigfoot statue somewhere.)
(front of the A-frame house buried in the ash)
(side of the A-frame house - it was really weird/cool to me to think that I'm standing on 6 feet of ash that has now just become the normal ground.)
(back of the A-frame house - I'm looking into the second floor because you can see into the bedroom and you can see just how quickly these people's lives were destroyed. The bedroom is still set up like people are living there...only now its covered in ash and rotting away.)
(Bigfoot drinking coffee because Bigfoot and coffee go hand in hand in Washington!)
(the edge of the blast zone...This is a new bridge built in place of the old bridge that was washed away from the mudslides caused by the eruption.)
(everything within the blast zone area was destroyed or drastically affected by the eruption)
(Me with Mt. St. Helens behind me to the right!)
(Mt. St. Helens -look closely and you'll see that everything around it is nothing but fields and fields of piles of ash)
(piles and piles of ash at the bottom of the mountain)
(looking into the crater of Mt. St. Helens...apparently the top of the mountain is right where the clouds are. It was amazing to me that almost the entire mountain was just literally blown away.)
(me and Mt. St. Helens)
(another one of Mt. St. Helens and the ash)
(this is a little hard to see but this is directly across from Mt. St. Helens...there is nothing but trees that were knocked down from the blast and ash. It looked like a nuclear wasteland.)
(It was hard to get a picture but this is a memorial to everyone who died during the eruption, with the mountain behind it.)
(another one of me and Mt. St. Helens)
(This is the reason why I am here spending one of our vacation days writing a blog post. This is Mr. V at the start of a really hard trail that goes up to the lowest point of the crater. He is hiking this as I type. I knew he'd want to do some crazy hike so I brought along stuff to entertain me for the day while he's off hiking. The park ranger told us that people who are afraid of heights and who don't have good balance aren't recommended to take this trail because it apparently gets pretty narrow and steep. Not exactly my cup of tea.)
(the reason why I am not hiking with Mr. V right now)
(total destruction)
(more fallen trees and ash)
(me sitting on a volcanic rock at Crystal Lake. The lake was formed during the eruption and all around it are piles of rock and ash. It was amazing to me to see the rocks because I can't even fathom the idea of the earth literally spitting out rocks this big - and this was one of the smaller ones.)
(a pile of ash and rocks at Crystal Lake)So happy 4th of July everyone! Assuming that Mr. V makes it back from his hike in one piece then we'll be checking out the fireworks in this tiny town tonight!
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