Mt. St. Helens is about 60 miles from Chehalis and it made for a great day trip. The mountain from the distance is awe inspiring, just like Mt. Baker, Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams--great structures that loom above everything else. Seeing Mt. St. Helens close up was something else. Everything seems so bare. The sides of the mountain are empty except for the snow that has settled in some of the ridges. The story is one of devastation. The north side of the top of the mountain became a huge landslide that left a thin crust so the built up pressure of the volcano spewed out laterally blowing trees right off their trunks for miles around. The landscape was totally changed in a matter of minutes. The 27 years since the eruption has not changed much of the National Park area. Private companies have reforested so outside the park you find skinny trunked trees, but at least it's green. The inside of the crater is still growing about a dump truck load of lava every 40 seconds. At that rate they figure it will take about 200 years to fill in the crater. Click on the picture of Mt. St. Helens to see the plume of steam still coming from the crater.
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