We started the day with great expectations of a real tour of sites. Mt. St. Helens...The Columbia Gorge...Mt. Hood... Well...........we sometimes plan our trips and it comes out looking like your food plate at a never-ending buffet. Too many events...not enough day.
We drove from Lafayette, OR to Mt St. Helens Visitor Center (a 2 hour trek), and had a HUGE "Oh...NO!!!" looming in front of us. The fog was so thick, you couldn't see a car 50 ft. away. To our relief...we were told that Mt. St Helens was another 45 miles down the road...and the cam corder in the visitor center indicated that the site was clear and sunny. Whew!!!
It's important to remember that the original blast of the volcano was 30 years ago...there has been much time for the forests to rejuvinate, and ground cover to be re-established.
The 4th picture almost looks like two mountains...but, the space between the peaks is the crater that was created when the mountain blew out toward the north...the mud and pumice flow, reconfigured much of the land surrounding Mt. St. Helen...the river beds are still very barren with not much plant life. The view from the front shows the path of the flows, and you can see more accurate
ly how it just lost it's peak down the front of the mountain.
Weyerhauser lumber Co has played a large part in planting sections of trees that were destroyed back in 1980.
ly how it just lost it's peak down the front of the mountain.Weyerhauser lumber Co has played a large part in planting sections of trees that were destroyed back in 1980.
The "barren" hillsides showing only white sticks (what's left of the trees) is the area that received the greatest damage from the blast as it is directly in the path due north of Mt. St Helens.
We had to include a pic of us to prove that we were there. This was our only event of the day...we found it so fascinating we just couldn't shorten the time we spent at Mt St Helens. We'll have to catch the Columbia Gorge and Mt. Hood some other time. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment