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Today we visited Mt. St. Helens, zipping up Highway 504 about fifty miles to Johnston Ridge viewpoint.  From this observatory, you have a direct view into the crater from only five miles away, and it’s awesome.  The dome has rebuilt, and is stil smoking.  On May 18, 1980, two major earthquakes the previous two weeks shook the interior of the mountain creating new vents for the magma to explode through the top and creating the largest landslide in recorded history, cascading three and a half billion cubic feet, a large chunk of the mountain, over the ridges and down the Toutle River, forming an ash cloud 80,000 feet high that went around the world in two weeks.  If you stacked all that material on one football field, it would be 375 miles high!  Today, 27 years later, they have reforested the mountains with Noble Fir and have built a beautiful highway right up to the observatory point.  The best part of the trip is the highway; a beautiful, wide, two lane highway that smokes you right to the top.  You don’t have to hit the gas or the brakes much on the way back to stay on the speed limit.  Coast down the mountain at 70 mph with your left hand resting lightly on the steering wheel, and if you have Toby Keith turned up loud, that’s good too, and your sensory experience is complete if you have a latte in your right hand.  You can’t help but think about those caught on the highways when the mountain exploded and raced to get away from the super hot, pyro cloud that roared down the valley at 150 mph.  The points that are now observation centers were hit by an explosion that leveled the forest for many square miles.  Designated as a National Volcanic Monument (this designation probably got the federal monies to build the highways and visitor centers) in 1983, it is well worth the trip to see this mountain that blew its top up close.  It has had eighteen major explosions in its 4000 years, and each one has made its height a little less.  It isn’t done yet, and the smoking dome shows the potential of all the peaks in the Cascade Mountains, which could become active volcanoes under the right conditions.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 2:10 pm and is filed under Travel Journal Entries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.