Mt St Helens

Mt St Helens erupted on May 18, 1980. 28 years later the devastating power of the volcano is still obvious all around her. Even from a distance of almost 50 miles, her shattered profile shrouded in clouds, one gets a sense of the destructive force unleashed on the southwestern corner of Wa State on that soft spring day in 1980.


As you get closer, the stark reality of what if took to blow off the top 2/3 of this mountain becomes more obvious.

It looks like a moonscape, but it is the result of great lahars, flows of mud, ash and debris, that literally buried the area around Mt St Helen's.

Even outside of the area of the mud flows, the full force the eruption is still apparent. entire forests of giant trees were blown down or shattered by the force of the inital blow out.

And yet, even in this harsh austere setting, life is returning. The earth is patient in healing its injuries. Life is returning to devastated foot hills of Mt St Helens

When the eruption occurred, Spirit Lake was buried under almost 300 feet of mud, ash and debris, but nature has again found a way to heal herself. The lake is returning and it's waters are reclaiming a place at the mountain's foot.

And even the wildlife has returned to the mountain. This little guy was very friendly and completely willing to pose for all the pictures I was inclined to take. (Bottom right hand corner)

Amid the broken bones of a devastated forest, new life springs forth and green slowly becomes the color of the mountain again.

Contrasts in color and grey tones, vibrant life and harsh devastation.

Mt St Helens leaves one with the realization that the earth is more resilient than we give her credit for being... and more incredibly beautiful than we usually stop to notice. Somehow, that beauty is more pronounced when it is highlighted by such enormous destruction.

And at the end of the day I found myself at home...

in the shadow of another volcano.

Sleep Sweetly, Mt Rainier, Sleep on!