Mount St. Helens National Monument

After eight days in the Columbia River Gorge, we had to head on down the road. We are on a schedule right now, as we are meeting one of our sons in Seattle in a couple weeks. So we headed down the road and across the Columbia River into the state of Washington. We are finding that Washington doesn't spend much money on fancy signs to welcome visitors to their state.

This is a new state for our motor home travels, and one stop we want to make is to see Mount St. Helens. We have seen her from atop Dog Mountain, and the Larch Mountain viewpoint, but we wanted to see her up close. It's a ways off our intended path, so we decided to boondock at the closest Walmart in Longview, Washington. This is the first Walmart we have seen that welcomes overnight RVers in a while. We found none in California or Oregon along the path we have traveled in the last three months. We parked the motor home beside the rose-bush-planted median in the side parking lot at Walmart, thinking that this is better landscaping than we have seen at some RV parks. Then we drove the car towards Mount St. Helens National Memorial.

It was an hour's drive from Longview, but the mountain scenery kept us entertained. We pulled off at the first of the viewpoints along the highway to get the lay of the land. This is the North Fork Toutle River Valley. Even though we are about ten miles away from Mount St. Helens, we are still within the blast zone that changed this area forever on May 18, 1980 when the mountain exploded. The rubble from the explosion came down this river valley, and within ten minutes deposited debris that averaged 150 feet in height to this landscape. So this valley isn't nearly as deep as it was 37 years ago. This section of the park has been replanted with trees and grass, and it looks like it's worlds away from a volcanic eruption.

The forests of planted evergreens are thick and perfect. There are so many branches intertwined in this group of same-age trees that the picture looks blurry.

From the next viewpoint, we can finally see the snowy base of Mount St. Helens, with Spirit Lake visible at her foot. But those clouds are hiding the beautiful face of St. Helens that we have come to see.

We talked to local hikers who said that their favorite hike was the one that circled Coldwater Lake. We stopped in for a look at this beautifully clear lake that was formed when debris from the volcano dammed the river. It's a chilly afternoon, but there are kayakers enjoying the cold water in Coldwater Lake.

We didn't take the 15-mile hike today, but we did take the 1-mile boardwalk that took us out over the lake. We visited with a volunteer ranger, who spends his afternoons answering tourist questions on this lake just for fun.

It was after 2:00 in the afternoon by the time we got to the official viewpoint right in front of Mount St. Helens. We weren't in any hurry to get here today, as we were hoping the morning clouds would burn off this afternoon. But we obviously don't understand the perseverance of Washington clouds.

This section of the national monument was not replanted in any way. This is a giant scientific experiment to see how land will react to the devastation of a volcanic eruption. 37 years later, the valleys closest to the volcano are still barren.

There are still stumps standing where giant trees were blown away that day.

There are whole mountains covered with these downed trees that look like toothpicks strewn over the hills. While we think of volcanoes as flowing red hot lava, much of the damage came from the blast when the entire side of Mount St. Helens exploded outwards.

The scientists studying the mountain knew that this eruption was eminent. Where the pressure was building inside Mount St. Helens, it was pushing the side of the mountain out as much as 4-5 feet per day. Before it exploded, the front side extended some 450 feet out further than usual.

Since we had all afternoon, we checked out the movies in the visitor center. There are two different films about the volcanic explosion, shown on a giant screen in front of the red current.

At the end of the show, the red curtain rises and we suddenly had front row seats to the beautiful Mount St. Helens--with the top still covered in clouds.

We ate the picnic lunch we brought as we watched the mountain. At 5:15, the clouds lifted enough to show the front face of the mountain. This is the side that exploded and disintegrated.

We got comfortable on a bench at the top of the viewing area and watched as the skies start to clear. We saw more and more blue sky, and the shorter mountains around us were lit up by the sun that was sinking in the sky. This is a beautiful place, as well as a solemn one. Fifty-seven people died when the volcano erupted 37 years ago this week.

We watched until 6:30 p.m. The visitor center is now closed and the parking lot is almost empty. We had hoped for a clear sky to show Mount St. Helens in all her glory. But we had been warned that a mountain this big can affect the weather around it, and today she was holding onto the clouds.

So we took a final panorama picture with the barren valley, and Mount St. Helens in the back right corner. The skies are clearing over the valley, with those darn clouds still stacked up just over the mountain.

As we drive back through the park, the foothills are lit up. We didn't get to see the star of the park, but it still is a beautiful place to spend the day.

We drove back to our home in the Walmart parking lot and did our shopping there in appreciation for the free night's stay. Besides, it's a great time-saver to roll that cart full of purchases directly to the door of your home. We don't mind an occasional Walmart overnight stay, especially if it makes it easier for us to visit an interesting place like Mount St. Helens.