RHH's photos with the keyword: st helens

Mount St. Helens and Spirit Lake from Windy Ridge

RHH
12 Aug 2009 1 1 362
We were at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument a couple of weeks ago. We had planned on doing some hiking but it was far too hot and so we did our sight-seeing by car ending up at Windy Ridge. Windy Ridge is to the southeast of the volcano and can be reached only by a long drive on Forest Service roads and then a short but steep hike to the top of the ridge. Visiting the volcano was quite an experience for us. The eruption had taken place nearly 30 years ago in 1980 and we expected to see the vegetation in the blast area well on the way to recovery, but found instead that the area around the volcano is still a barren wilderness. Even at the outer edges of the blast area, six to eight miles from the volcano there are few trees growing and nearer the volcano in the area shown in this picture there are areas that are still bare of vegetation and completely treeless. Farther from the volcano the trees are still laid out in neat rows just as they were felled by the blast, but near the volcano the trees are completely gone, in most cases not even the stumps remaining. Spirit Lake, too, is still partly filled with floating trunks of trees that were blown into the lake by the eruption. As for the volcano itself, though it lost 1200 feet of elevation in the eruption it is still an impressive mountain, looming over the surrounding area. In this photo the side of the mountain that collapsed during the eruption can be seen as well as steam from some of the vents on the mountain and the new cone that is building within the crater.

Automobile Destroyed in the Mount St. Helens Erupt…

RHH
13 Aug 2009 1 481
Taken at an observation point in the Mount St. Helens area called "Miner's Car." The sign nearby reads, "This car was tossed about like a toy, rolled from across the road where it had been parked. Owners of the car were in their cabin at a nearby mine and were killed when Mount St. Helens erupted." This is five or six miles from the crater.

Norway Pass, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Mo…

RHH
13 Aug 2009 1 356
Norway Pass is about six miles east of Mount St. Helens and is part of the area devastated in the blast. This is the blast area 30 years later and is typical of the whole area. Photo taken by my wife.

Mount St. Helens Eruption Area and West End of Spi…

RHH
14 Aug 2009 1 454
Mount St. Helens is off to the left in this picture and the area shown is the area devastated by the collapse of the east side of the mountain and the mud and lava flows. The west end of Spirit Lake is barely visible in this shot, as it is still filled with the floating tree trunks that were blown into the lake by the eruption.