September 28, 2009 – West Side of Mount Saint Helens

We woke early, packed a lunch and off we went.  It was a little cloudy and we hoped to see everything before the rain started.

Here is the Toutle River Valley – this is where the river of mud and ash came thru on that fateful day:

  This bridge was reconstructed after the blast.  This area is also at the edge of the blast zone.   Most of the area here is owned by Weyerhaeuser Company (logging) and they suffered massive losses.  But their recovery of the forest has also helped the animal habitats recover.  At this point we are 14.8 miles from the crater:

Castle Lake - created by the blast:

The mountain is in the clouds – :-((:

Coldwater Lake – also created by the blast.  We were here in 1995 and what a difference!  There was very little vegetation then.  We had lunch then took the trail by the lake.

The high walls by the river is a combination of the mud, ash, and parts of the mountain.

The view from Loowit Point:

And the view from Johnson Ridge Observatory.  When the mountain slid, all that dirt, etc. rolled down the valley and up and over this point – can you imagine:

More views from the observatory:

We spent some time in the observatory, taking in the exhibits and the movie – WOW!  This happened on May 18, 1980.  The first time I was here was in September of that year.  I could not get near the area but was able to see some of the blast zone with the trees down and where some of the mud flow happened.  Andy and I were here in 1995 and it was great to see some of the areas opening up.  This time, we were able to see even more and it was good to see everything coming back.

The good thing about this blast is that scientists have and are learning how to predict when a volcano will happen – which is critical with the number of active volcano’s around the Pacific.

What a great trip!!  The rain did not start until we were almost home.

I now have Andy’s cold and not feeling well – :-((( - so we will see what happens tomorrow.