Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument

Copyright 2017, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Back in 2013, YES, 2013, Man and I spent the 4th of July week in Packwood Washington. From there we visited Mount Rainier, Mount Saint Helens, had an enjoyable day driving around Chinook Pass, and enjoyed the local museum and entertainment.  The connectivity was poor, no phone service, no internet at the campground, disconnected.  It was a wonderful, but, very long week!  LOL

Our drive to Mount Saint Helens was from Packwood.  We did not go to the main entrance of the park or the Visitor's Center.  That right there was something different for us, as we enjoy snooping around and learning at the Visitor's Centers.

We noted as we started that we were at a bit less than 1000 feet altitude, I took a photo of the GPS in Jolly, and then another.  We were really climbing, more than 20 feet in just seconds.  UP we go, one of our first views, by the way, this was about 2700 feet.

We stopped at most pull offs and even took a few short walks.  We are now about 3800 feet.

Note the dead trees:

More devastation:

Remember, Mount Saint Helens erupted in 1980.  We visited in 2013.  Parts of the area, in the National Monument have been left untouched.  Other sections, the dead trees have been removed and new young saplings were planted, it is now, growing back.

This is Meta Lake, where because it was covered by ice and the trees were 8 feet deep in snow, the eruption did not do the same kind of damage as elsewhere.  

It really is quite amazing to see the life:

Further down the road, Spirit Lake.  That is not sand, those are trees!

The landslide from the explosion at Mount Saint Helens raised the lake level by 200 feet!  

These are not match sticks.  This is not a puzzle, this is a photo thanks to Sony's zoom, of those logs floating on Spirit Lake.

Mount Saint Helens, the top blown off:

Flowers, not many, but, the color is welcomed while you view all this destruction.

How's this for stunning?

I climbed part of the way up this mountain to get a different view of Mount Saint Helens.  It took me some time as I could only do a couple of stories worth of stairs (that is somewhere around 25 stairs) at a time.  Then, I would stop, look about till I stopped breathing hard and started again.  I never intended on getting all the way to the top, but, the healthier souls (and some not so healthy and in my opinion not very wise either) did go alllllllll the way up!!

This parking lot is as far as we could go, as close as we could get. 

ZOOM!!!

Panorama, that is Mount Adams to the far left, those more familiar with the landscape will surely correct me if I am wrong. 

Still resting where it was on that day in 1980:

The day was filled with learning and interesting things to do, a few walks, a lot of stairs (and soreness later), about 200 photos and  - - - - a very interesting scene for these RVers.  I'll bring you that little part of the story soon.

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