Mount St. Helens, Washington

In March 1980, after 123 years of silence, Mt. St. Helens resumed volcanic activity. The mountain blew a 5.1 magnitude earthquake which triggered a violent eruption and one of the worlds largest recorded landslides.


Upon entering the park, I encountered this beautiful flowering plant. I don't know its name but it was too beautiful not to pass along to you.



Thirteen hundred feet of mountaintop collapsed into the Toutle River Valley. This eruption claimed 57 lives and devastated almost 150,000 acres of forests.




The valley below the mountain was instantly scoured by heat, wind, ash, & rock. Winds reached over 300 miles per hour & the landslide reached speeds of 155 miles per hour. The temperatures reached 660 degrees Fahrenheit.

The landscape was left barren after the blast and all was grey with ash. All trees were flattened. The ground itself was stripped of any grasses, down to its topsoil. It was down to the plan rock foundation.

The park has left its portion of the devastation in tact. But Weyerhauser, who has tree farms adjacent and around the park, planted over 18.4 million trees to replace those lost by this explosion.

Since 1980, plant & animal life has come back to Mt. St. Helens and the surrounding valley.

From October 2004 through January 2008 the ongoing 'minor' eruptions produced over 125 million cubic meters of lava.

There are several hiking trails that you can take, and be sure to visit the Johnston Ridge Observatory and the Forest Learning Center. They show short movies and tell stories of before, during and after the May 1980 eruption.

See ya down the road !