Mount St. Helens

We have a grandson staying with us for a month and two weeks ago took him and a friend to Mount St. Helens. It was not a very nice day and we were disappointed not to see the volcano. The lower slopes of the volcano are visible on the far right of the picture, but that was all we could see. This photo was taken from the Johnson Observatory and shows part of the blast area and the upper end of the Toutle River Valley through which most of the mud flows went. This close to the blast the trees were simply destroyed and as is obvious from the photo very few of them have started to grow back. Every time we visit I am amazed that 33 years after the eruption the blast area still looks like it does.