Just One Day

Saturday was one of those days where I had to pinch myself periodically to make sure what I was seeing was real. I often say that our life is a charmed one, and Saturday was especially so.

We got up around 7 cuz the guys wanted to do a little fishing before we left The Columbia River area. While the fellows fished, Bonnie and I took a drive up the mountain. She hadn't been with us the day before and I wanted to show her Mount Hood. In the morning light, it just seemed to preside over the river and the vineyards. (Try as I might, I could not find one angle where I could shoot the river, the vineyards and Mount Hood.)

After a quick brunch, we were on WA 14 heading west again; we were off to our next stop, the town of Castle Rock, up north on I 5. What a beautiful drive. I definitely recommend that if you are coming out this way, you drive the WA side. Some of the tunnels make it more challenging with big and tall motorhomes, but it is worth it. And I caught one more magnificent view of Mt. Hood.

When the sign says 13', I get nervous especially when we meet a fifth wheel.

It had to have been opening weekend of some kind of fish; the inland waterways along the road where full of boats.

When we arrived at the campground, it took us all of one hour to disconnect the cars and hit the road again. By 2:00 we were headed up 504 towards Mount St. Helens. I don't think any of us really knew what to expect.

Just a short ways from town, we stopped at the first visitor center and got our first glimpse of this infamous mountain.

We also discovered that it was 30 years ago on May 18th, that this volcano made history as the first to "blow its top" in North America. And blow it did, the statistics about this event are staggering and to see it in person... WOW. (If you want to read lots about this milestone, the May 2010 National Geographic has Mt. St. Helens as the cover story.)


We were all very impressed with our first glimpse and wondered just how close we were going to be able to get since we were only a few miles down the 47 mile road... Another stop showed us the trickle that used to be a flowing river. The silt and ash and lava is what you see on the banks of that small creek; it may look like all water until you look closely.

Our next stop seemed not to make much sense; a viewpoint for a bridge. Well, once we read about what Weyerhauser had lost when Mt. St. Helens erupted, then we realized what a major feat this bridge was, to say nothing of all the trees that are now growing on many of the hillsides.

Soon we reached the actual National Monument; at this point we still had 12 or so miles to go to the end of the road (at least from our direction). When you look at the mountain in this picture, you can begin to see the crater, on the right, from which the lava flowed. This mountain lost 1300 feet when it exploded. The ash was reported in 11 states and 57 people were killed by the mud, ash, rock and trees during the explosion. It "blew" with a force of 700 miles per hour.

As I just stood and stared, it was easy to imagine what the area looked like in the weeks and months after the Mount St. Helens erupted; the total devastation and the effort it has taken to come back are mind boggling.

The one above and the one below show that the area looks like; these were taken just over 4 miles away from the mountain peak. You can very definitely see how the lava flowed and imagine what the mountain looked like with another 1300 feet of soil and rock on top.

A close up of the mountain. We were fortunate that the clouds stayed away as much as they did during our day there.

The clouds began to move in as we made our way back down the road.

This is a most impressive sight! Oh, and it is so far along in its recovery that Elk graze in the valleys - I know, I saw them! And speaking of elk, that is what Mike and I had for dinner last night - elk burgers... tastes like hamburger to me.

One last thing. I heard on the news that Mount Hood has been having earthquake activity...

Mount St. Helens had earthquake activity for weeks before it erupted... better take another look at that peak on Hood.