The volcano

After 3 nights in Cannon Beach with coastal cloudy conditions and mid-sixties temperatures, we moved north to Astoria and crossed the Columbia at Longview, then a few miles north, east on 504 to Silverlake. Temps went from 65 to 85 and it seemed smoky. It was a satellite friendly site so both ACs worked hard.

The next day we continued east in the car to Mount St Helens. If you'll remember, the north side of the mountain blew it self off in 1980 creating a huge landslide and literally blasted trees off the landscape for miles.

The landslide also filled a lake (Spirit Lake) sloshing the water 800 feet up the hillside and eventually raising the lake level 200 feet! Debris filled the lake and even today the surface of the lake still is partially covered with blown down trees.

The first shot is the crater (sorry it's hard to see with the smoky haze. The next 2 are a river that drains from the mountain. All the erosion is since 1980! The devastation is still obvious.

We stopped a few miles down the highway to see the sediment dam and had to hike through a reforested section which shows how it can be after reforestation of 30-35 years. Imagine hundreds of years of growth.