We drove about 2 1/2 hours south to a campground at Silverlake, Washington, which is near Mount St Helens. After getting settled, we started the trip toward the volcano. Its eruption happened just a few weeks after Bennett's birth.
There are several visitor's centers. The area is called the St Helens National Volcanic Monument, in memory of those who died in the eruption. There is a lot of information about the devastation and recovery efforts.
The area is planted with millions of Noble fir trees, some of which were even planted immediately after the eruption. Those are scheduled for harvest around 2026. There are still lots of dead tree trunks, lying in rows where they were felled by the blast.
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| Our first view of the volcano |
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| Fir trees in the foreground |
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| Brucie and Baxter enjoyed the trip! |
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| Wildflowers along the walkway |
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| You can really see the crater in this view. |
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| More wildflowers |
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| A tree that had its top blown off in the destruction. The back still had some bark on it. |
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| Coldwater Lake This was formed when debris from the eruption blocked mountain streams. |
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| Noble fir trees. You should look at this picture in full screen! It looks like it's not in focus, but it is! We kept seeing mountainsides of these trees and felt like our eyes were out of focus. There's some sort of optical illusion when you look at a hillside of them.... sort of like looking at a 3D picture without the glasses. |
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