Great Big Western Trek

Tuesday, August 28th It is a Mount St. Helen's day! I have seen the TV footage, read the national Geographic, saw photos in magazines, but nothing prepared me for this today. We stopped at all the scenic overlooks, which turned the one and a half hour trip to the volcano into a 4-hour trip. But I'd do the same again. Bill Martin, a volunteer with the Park Service at Hoffstadt Bluffs was nice enough to point out a herd of elk in the volcanic mud riverbed below. He told us about living in the valley. Some funny stuff I did not get a picture of was the sign on the side of the road, which said "Entering Skamania County." I thought that was a funny name, Skamania! Makes me think music! I wonder how much Ska is heard in Skamania? Does everyone like Ska music? Hmmmm. On Johnson's Ridge, which is the mountain next to Mt. St. Helen's, there is a Visitor’s Center which has a great movie and at the end of the movie the screen goes up and Mt. St. Helen's fills the window wall - the real Mt. St. Helen's - WOW

Bill Martin, Parks volunteer

This was the view from Bill's vantage point. At the left tip of the island, there is a herd of elk lounging on the lava/mudflow. The thin river of white is the Toutle River, which now flows on a riverbd three hundred feet higher than before Mt. St. Helen's blew her top. The gray area is all mud flow from the eruption in 1984.

The Toutle River  valley with Mt. St. Helen's at the highest point in the photo, clouds around it..

Very fragile ecosystem on the mountain now. "Plants grow by the inch and die by the foot."

Mom,awestruck at the devastation, 20 plus years after the fact! That is Mount St. Helen's she's looking at.