Mount St. Helens (9-25-24)

 

Moving on from Mt. Rainier, our  next place to explore was Mount St Helens. Like Rainier, we had decided to approach the volcano from a couple of different areas. Our first stop was the northeastern section. We had a couple of hikes in mind in this area, and were hoping to get a better glimpse of the mountain, but it was not to be. 

It was totally socked in. 

We drove up the scenic byway anyway, and did learn some interesting information about frogs. When Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980, this area was blanketed with 8 feet of snow. The snow protected the animals and plants beneath it, sparing them from the ash, intense heat, and debris. Because of that, millions of frogs thrived in the new environment, and because they were there, predators came and also flourished.

There are still thousands of frogs in this area.

Spirit Lake was the hike we were planning, but we were at the overlook but couldn’t see the lake, so decided to pass.

We soon moved on to the town of Kelso, which is west of Mt. St. Helens.  This is the first real “town” we have been in, in a while. It has a Safeway, JC Penney and other stores. One of the prices we pay, literally, for going off the grid more, is  the cost of groceries. We have to take what we can get, and then pay a lot for it.  It felt good to be in a “real town”. I actually did a yelp search and found a place to get my hair cut- it’s way overdue. She did a great job.

This town has something I have never seen before- squirrel bridges! (you can see it in both pictures)

We found out from Facebook that we have friends staying in town, so we quickly made arrangements to meet up for dinner with Jeri and Terry. We had a great time catching up and hopefully will see them soon, down the road. 

This access area to Mt. St. Helens is the busier side, and therefore has more to see and do.

One of the main hikes we wanted to do from the Kelso area is called Ape Cave. Weird name, and it has nothing to do with monkeys, per se. It was named  by the first explorers of the cave.

The Reese boys were members of the Mt. St. Helens APE club, a club for outdoor enthusiasts.

There are two trails inside the lava tube, a hard one and an easy one. Reviews of the hard one recommend helmets because hitting your head is a distinct possibility. That’s a quick “no” from me, so we took the easy trail. As Lava tubes go it wasn’t very interesting. We walked as far as we wanted and then turned around. The biggest perk was that although the temperature outside was in the mid 80s, inside the cave, it was a cool 42 degrees.

Once back outdoors, the  skies had cleared enough that we got our first good, albeit smoky, view of Mount St. Helens.

Our second hike of the day, Lava Canyon was very short at under a mile, but more scenic than Ape Cave.

The following day was our big foray into the national monument, with our first stop being the visitor center, where we learned more about this volcano, and volcanos in general. Since we are apparently spending much of our summer exploring them, it’s nice to know that they do not erupt with no notice, and Mt. St. Helens was not an exception. I do remember when Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980, but I was a junior in college and sad to say, as self centered as most 20 year olds. I remember thinking at the time that it shouldn’t be a surprise? Doesn’t a volcano erupt on a regular basis? So, obviously, no. But it also wasn’t a surprise.

In  early 1980, Mount St. Helens appeared to be a very dormant volcano, but by late March, the earthquake activity had increased to the point that scientists were concerned that it was in a “pre-eruption” pattern, and the volcano was promptly closed to public access.

As time went on, earthquake activity continued to grow and escalate, causing the evacuation of residents within a 15 mile perimeter of the volcano.  Harmonic Tremors, which are essentially one earthquake after another, became prevalent.  They usually, but not always, forecast an eruption.

Unfortunately, enough time passed between the evacuations and the actual eruptions, that some people had been allowed back in to their homes to collect some belongings.

On May 18, 1980, the top 1300 feet of the volcano blew off in an eruption, sending ash plumes 15 miles into the sky, and creating a deep crater.

Within 2 weeks, ash from Mt. St. Helens circled the entire earth.

Rock and glacial ice slid down the side of the volcano, sending enough debris and mud into the Columbia River, that the depth was changed from 40 feet to 15 feet. creating a long term issue for ships using the river.

The history was fascinating to me, although its difficult for me to drill it down into 2 paragraphs, and have it make sense.

The eruptions of Mount St Helens also created 4 new lakes. One of them is Coldwater Lake, where we spent a morning hiking along the shore.

When this lake was created, it was full of mud, and debris, and smelled like garbage. If you put your hand into the water, it would disappear into the muck.

Luckily there are microorganisms that thrive in this environment, and within 3 years, the water was clear. I am sure that makes all the kayakers very happy.