Mount St. Helen's....

OK....here is where I get a little nerdy, don't say I didn't warn you!  In the spring of 1980...I fell in love with a volcano.  Actually...let me start this a little different, I clearly remember a camping trip, during one of our summer vacations up to Washington...we were going to go camping with my Uncle Stan...my dad's older brother.  I thought Uncle Stan was one suave son of a gun!  I mean, he lived in a place in Hawaii that you had to take an elevator to get too....I was about 5 or six..it was amazing!  All I remember of that trip to Hawaii was the elevator and the smell of the bag of McDonald's cheeseburgers we had.  So fast forward a couple years, my parents let us know Uncle Stan is sick, he had cancer.  We are getting ready for this trip...my dad rents a camp trailer...something was wrong with the first one he brought...and I cried like a baby, because I loved the little kitchen it had inside...he brought back a tent trailer, which did not have a cute kitchen inside...I was a little crushed.  I remember bits and pieces of that trip....my mom falling out of the boat, as we pulled in to shore, forever securing her fear of boats... my parents completely convinced Mike and I that there really was a Bigfoot, it had to be true, we saw a plaster casting of his footprint....my mom made chunky soup served over noodles taste amazing....Uncle Stan started not feeling well and being picked up by his wife, Barbara...and what started my love of volcanoes, my parents gave Mike and I pieces of cardboard to slide down a VOLCANO, it felt so dangerous and was crazy fun at the same time.

So, when the mountain started rumbling back to life in 1980, I could not get enough information, I was enthralled by it!  I knew I wanted to be a volcanologist.  My mom furthered my interest by taking me to USGS (U. S. Geological Survey) office in the Bay Area.  She took me to the place where they had a model of the San Francisco Bay...very cool.  I took college courses in geology, one included road trips all over Washington with my class.  But....in reality, I became a mom, and that is something I love even more than volcanoes.  

On our trip home from meeting Mahoney Jane, and in trade for letting him take time to browse a Guitar Center store...I told Lee I wanted to see Mount St. Helen's as it looked now.  My parents had taken me before when I was on a visit (mid to late 80's)...but you could not get anywhere close enough to really see much.  So....here is our little excursion...

I was driving, of course...but my co-pilot for the last 22 years, knows what I like pictures of.  Here is where I got a little giddy...I could see the mountain.  The mountain is about 50 miles to the east of I-5, and along the way are visitor centers, you can stop at and take pictures.

This is a view from the Mount St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument.  A great place to learn about the mountain and its recovery are at the Johnston Ridge Observatory.  

In this picture you can see, how the debris flow from the eruption clogged the Toutle River...instead of flowing like a typical river, it is more like a creek in spots.

More damage to the Toutle river basin.

 I am appreciative of how the are letting nature redo the landscape.  You can still see fallen trees and the new vegetation, that has arisen. 

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Two very cool things...a volcano and Lee in the same pic!!

See the tiny little bit of blue...that is Spirit Lake.  During the eruption it was clogged with trees that were blown into it by the blast and choked with ash and debris.  It was beautiful when I was a kid.  

You can see the expanse of the blast zone (area directly affected by the eruption) as your drive through the area near the mountain.  Trees still lay where they landed over 30 years ago. One thing I thought was interesting was that there are species of birds and vegetation that were not there before the blast.  When the mountain recovered, it was due to gophers, who live underground, they pushed the soil to the surface, along with seeds that were underground as well.  The seeds bloomed, creating flowers and trees, that brought birds, and the birds brought seeds from other places.  

This is where I should admit...that deep in the storage closet, there is a box of goodies.  All of the books my parents bought me, the baby food jars full of ash, that family members shared.  Each and every time we move and I unpack the boxes the movers have left all over the house, when I find this one...I stop everything and take everything out of the box and and for a little bit of time, I am a volcanologist!!!




P.S.  please disregard the time stamp on the pictures...guess who forgot to set the date after replacing the batteries.