Three Things Thursday: Mount St. Helens

Thanks to Nerd in the Brain for the weekly challenge Three Things Thursday:

three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy

Trip to Mount St. Helens Volcanic Monument

Related Posts:

• Living in the Shadow of an Active Volcano
• 35 Years Ago Today: Mount St. Helens Erupts

You know how we often say “We should do XXX sometime” but then never getting around to actually doing it?

A trip out to Mount St. Helens has been one of those things for us ever since we moved to the Pacific Northwest. Fortunately, our activities director here at Franke Tobey Jones arranged a bus trip, and we eagerly signed up.

Mount St. Helens, which erupted on Sunday, May 18, 1980, is easily recognizable by the giant crater caused by a landslide on the mountain’s north face. I have written in detail about that eruption (see the two related posts), so I’ll just include some observations here.

(Click on any photo to see a larger version.)

(1) The mountain’s crater and the devastation as well as regrowth around it are evident in this photo:

(2) You can still see evidence of the downed logs that covered the area around the volcano like matchsticks as a result of the eruption:

You can also see the new evergreen trees that have grown up to begin the natural process of reforestation.

(3) Wild flowers proliferate, evidence of nature restoring itself:

For More Information

In quite a case of synchronicity, today I find this news article: Crystal movement under Mount St. Helens may have predicted 1980 eruption

Mount St. Helens Visitor Information

Eruption Geology and Monitoring

Mount St. Helens Science and Learning Center at Coldwater

Lawetlat’la

© 2016 by Mary Daniels Brown