History Channel Mt. St. Helen video

Let me begin by apologizing for being twenty one years old when Mt. St. Helen erupted. All these years later I cannot even remember it happening.

 I was busy getting married and having a baby and I was, well............twenty one.

With that said, let me say that I am proud of the curious, need to be in the know, life long learner and naturalist that I have become. 

So when Dave and I planned our train trip with Tim to Seattle, visiting the site of the

deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States was a destination we needed to get to. Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed.

The eruption removed the upper 1,300 feet of the summit and left a horseshoe-shaped crater and a barren wasteland below it.

We stopped at a small store so that Tim and I could buy some kind of jacket or sweatshirt. Average temperature that day.....61 with rain and we had foolishly forgotten our jackets at home( in Wisconsin).

After we bought our coats we headed out in search of the best place to view the mountain. 
We stopped at the Mt. St. Helen visitors center,  an aesthetically beautiful place with a birds eye viewing platform.  

The platform allowed us to view the mountain as well as the valley below it. Unfortunately, the top of the mountain was hooded in fog which made it difficult to see even through the viewing cameras but the valley below it was magnificent.

beautiful foxgloves

surrounding forests

Red alder trees-
The largest species of alder  in the world, reaching heights of 66 to 98 ft. The official tallest red alder stands 105 ft tall in Clatsop County, Oregon

beautiful meadows

The valley below the mountain

As we sat and watched the video on the big screen inside the educational center there were images of then president, Jimmy Carter comparing the area to a moonscape. Actually, that was a great analogy.  Charred and gray with ash just like the images we have seen of the moons surface.  It reminded me more of images I have seen in movies of an atomic bomb blast where a powerful force wipes out everything around it.

Mt. St. Helen mountain and valley

The moon valley

There was volcanic activity again in 2004.  The activity continued through 2008.

2004-2008

The good news:
There were important interactions between plants and animals after the eruption.  Animals mixed up the soil, consumed plants, dispersed seeds and fungal spores, and served as predators and prey. Within days of the eruption, gophers mixed underlying nutrient-rich soil with nutrient-poor and  volcanic deposits. Roots of plant seedlings connected with fungal spores that turned out to be essential to their survival. 
Amphibians and other animals used tunnels excavated by gophers to escape to ponds and wetlands created by the eruption. Small mammals transported seeds from surviving vegetation to barren areas where the seeds germinated. 
Downed trees created pools of water that created essential protective habitats for fish and amphibians. 
Dead trees provided nesting sites for birds and hiding cover for other animals. They supported fungi, and released nutrients and carbon into the developing soil. 
 Stream conditions improved quickly because sediment was flushed from channels and vegetation began to shade the streams. Even though the streams water was warm, salmon and trout thrived because their main food,  aquatic and terrestrial insects, were abundant. 
12 of the 15 species of amphibians that existed before the blast survived by burrowing under the ground and are thriving.
vegetation recovery...a satellite view

We will definitely visit Mt. St. Helen again.  Hopefully it will be a clearer day.  You could even take a helicopter ride over the mountain if that is something you would like to do.  I think David and Tim might like that ride but I am not too sure about Dave and I. If you are a climber, you can climb the mountain but are warned to watch out for small explosive eruptions (um..no thanks you go ahead and let me know how it is). There are hiking trails and areas where you can camp.

I leave you with this...........the natural world does not need humans. Humans need the natural world.

In the words of John Muir:

 Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. 
I will add to J.M.'s quote:   give yourselves and your children the gift of knowing your own country and the beauty all around it.

Volcano cam
Here's something for cam lovers.

NOVA video
Long but worth the viewing.