Mt. Saint Helens, Washington

We're back online! We haven't added an update for awhile - we were visiting friends near Port Angeles, Washington, for a few days, and then relocated to Seaquest State Park, so we could spend a little time touring around Mt. Saint Helens. Seaquest State Park has a variety of campsites. Some of the sites very open, others nestled among towering trees. It's very well maintained and we had a wonderful host on our loop.  Unfortunately, we had no Internet access there, so there's a lot to catch up.

Mt. Saint Helens erupted in 1980, only a short time after we moved to Oregon, so we remember vividly the impact it had on everyone in the northwest. We visited the Windy Ridge side of the volcano a few years after the eruption and marveled then at how quickly the wildflowers and other plant life was reestablishing itself in the ash from that eruption. Now, on the 30th anniversary of the event, it's even more amazing to see the video and still photographs of the eruption and compare the impact then to the area as it appears today.

The parks service has done a marvelous job of creating educational displays and presentations for all age groups. The visitors center near Castle Rock is older and getting a bit faded, but still has a lot of wonderful hands-on displays especially good for teaching young children, or anyone with no geology background. It's definitely worth a stop.

The drive up to Johnston Ridge, even in the gray drizzly weather we had, is picturesque. There are lots of opportunities to view the areas of forest that have been replanted, and the cliffs where downed trees are still visible. We stopped for a light lunch at the Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center, which is actually more of a lodge. There's not a lot there in the way of displays, but they do have a nice gift shop and restaurant, and a collection of original newspapers reporting the eruption, which is fun to browse. There's also a sense of deja vu, as the topics of the day then were Iran, finance reform, and the unemployment rate. We had a  window seat in the restaurant with a clear view of the whole Toutle River valley. The original river bed was buried by up to 600 feet of ash mud flow during the eruption, and now the river wanders through that ash in a little silver stream, cutting a new path as it wanders between the hummocks and logs that were left behind embedded in the mud.

 After lunch we continued on to visit the newer center, at Johnston Ridge. The ridge is named for David Johnston, the geologist who was killed during the eruption. One of the features of this center is a video that has actual footage of the eruption. The quality of their video is a testament to new technology and video restoration techniques. Nothing from very close to the eruption survived the blast, so they must have worked with footage taken from quite a distance. However they did it, it's very impressive

The center also has presentations by rangers scheduled throughout the day, and a really nice glass enclosed viewing area - much appreciated as it was very cold and windy that day! The center is situated such that you have a clear view of the portion of the peak that was blown away during the eruption. The stark stumps of trees that were torn apart by the blast adorn the ashy slopes around the center. It's a sharp reminder of nature's power.
There is another visitors center at Coldwater Ridge, but it was closed, apparently for some remodeling, so we weren't able to visit it. Additional photos of the area are in this album.

On the road again, we are headed for Eugene, to get settled in and ready for the next Duck game.