Mt St Helens National Monument

A closer look at the cone of Mt St Helens

Mt St Helens needs no introduction does she? I do not need to give any history on the youngest and most recently active volcano in the Cascade Range, but you are welcome to read up on the eruption from May of 1980 if you like.

I drove out to the Johnston Ridge Observatory which has ‘the’ view of the north side of Mt St Helens, the side that the eruption caused a huge portion of the mountain to fall away. Although the volcano is visible 30 miles out while driving up closer to it, the real view is that of the miles of wasteland between the volcano and Johnston Ridge. Miles and miles of absolutely nothing. What was once an old-growth forest full of trees is now open land. Sure, it may be easy to focus on the devastation and destruction, but looking at it today (more than 30 years after) it is full of life and amazingly beautiful even without all the trees.

What I took away from the visit was just how large the mountain actually is (and was) and how massive the destruction was. The pictures do not do it justice, it really must be seen with your own eyes. The picture below is from 3 to 4 miles away and only shows the top 4,000ft of the current mountain. And imagine, this mountain was about 1,300ft taller before the eruption!