Well I got a few things wrong yesterday when I said we would be on back roads to get to the North side of Mt. St. Helens. There is actually an Eastern entrance to the St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The road begins in Randle, Washington and goes South into the park and it is blacktop all the way. It is a much less visited site than the main entrance from the west that we visited in 2005. Over there they have a nice visitor’s center that overlooks the crater of St. Helens. The great part of coming in from the East is it goes past Spirit Lake. Spirit Lake is below the mountain and was drastically change the day of the eruption. When the mountain blew it’s top, several hundred tons of material was blown into the air and some of it landed in the lake. This cause a large wave which rushed up the sides of the mountains surrounding the lake. When the water came back into the lake, the debris had raised the bottom of the lake by several feet. The water also carried the trees on the side of the mountains back into the lake. This picture shows what the trees on the mountains looked like after the blast of hot gasses from the volcano.
This is what Spirit Lake looks like today. It has been 30 years and the trees are still floating on the lake.
This is a picture of the mountain I took in 2005 from the West entrance. You will notice steam or smoke rising from the crater.
This a picture I took today from the East entrance.
We saw lots of major mountains today. From a distance of course but still impressive. Mt. Hood is actually in Oregon, 11,239 feet. About 45 miles away.
This is Mt. Adams, 12,276 feet. About 25 miles away.
This is Mt. Rainier, 14,411 feet, highest peak in Washington. About 40 miles away in this picture.
This picture was taken in Bonney Lake and would be about 15 miles from the mountain.
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