Mt. St. Helens

Saturday we took a drive (~2 hrs) to Mt. St. Helens in Washington. Along for the trip were our good friends Matt and Kristina Kern, their puppy Zoe, and Kristina's sister Lila (visiting for the week and behind her 10MP camera).

A cool bridge on the way to Mt. St. Helens.

It was sunny in Portland when we left (which I am told is a rare event) so we figured it would be a good day to get outside for some sightseeing.

However, as we approached Mt. St. Helens, we were a little disappointed to see that it was buried in clouds (although it was beautiful in its own right). The clouds give some perspective of the magnitude of this great mountain. When we arrived at the observatory, we were unpleasantly surprised by a mandatory $8 just to look at the mountain. So we left, drove down the road a few miles, and decided to pull over to the side of the road to view it for ourselves (for free)......and yes, I will always be a cheap grad student at heart.

It was still very cloudy, but patience is a virtue, so we waited it out for the sun to burn off some clouds.

...and it was definitely worth the wait (as you can see from the pic). Note the low lying clouds. It is still hard for me to fathom the force required to blow the top off of this mountain. The power of nature is truly incredible. Pics pre-1980 show that the slope of the mountain continues upwards to a sharp peak, so you can only imagine how much debris was created when it exploded.

Here is the valley, which is still filled with sediment from the 1980 eruption. If you look closely, you can see a river cutting through.

Seriously, this is not Photoshopped.

Here is a view of Mt. Ranier in the distance (covered in snow). It will be the subject of future excursions (possibly a weekend backpacking trip?).

A lot of firs were replanted after the eruption to help the natural habitat recover. They kinda reminded me of that wacky painter on PBS in the 80's with the fro who always wanted to put "a happy little tree" in every part of his paintings. I think he was smoking too many trees.

We ended the trip in a very Portland-esque way by having fast food at a place called Burgerville. They only use wind energy. They only use 100% recycled paper and recycle all their trash. The straws are not made from plastic, but instead, they consist of corn starch so they are 100% renewable. This intrigued me as a chemist; what a great use of natural materials......I only wish other establishments would follow suit. One more reason Burgerville rules: SWEET POTATO FRIES that are awesome!!

-much love,

Brad and Em