Mount St. Helens ★

Those were the last words heard over the radio from researcher David Johnston from his observation station five miles north of Mt. St. Helens on the ridge that now bears his name. His body was never found.

Before the blast, Mount St. Helens was topped with a symmetrical cone and was described as "America's Mount Fujiyama." The blast blew 1,300 feet off the summit, changing its elevation from 9,677 feet to its present-day 8,363 feet with a gaping crater on its north side. Washington State's ninth highest mountain became its 30th highest.

The photo above is Mount St. Helens on May 17, 1980 taken by Harry Glicken from what is now Johnston Ridge. It shows the distorted bulge that blew out the following day after a magnitude 5.0 earthquake. Source: US Geological Survey archives.

The blast leveled forests up to seventeen miles away. A large amount of material crashed into Spirit Lake at the base of the mountain, burying Spirit Lake Lodge and lodge owner Harry Truman, who had refused to evacuate. The surface of the lake is now several hundred feet above its former level. Nearly 30 years later much of the surface is covered with logs from the devastated slopes around the lake. The logs were swept into the lake by a huge surge that went up the ridges around the lake when part of the mountain crashed into one end of it.

Much of the debris and mudflows went down the North Fork of the Toutle River, carrying logging equipment, bridges, buildings, and a few people with it. Enough mud went downriver into the Cowlitz River and south to the Columbia River that ship traffic was halted on the Columbia until the channel could be dredged. In some places the shipping channel depth was reduced from 40 feet to 14 feet.

Many people near the volcano didn't hear anything when the explosion took place. I spoke with a woman at the Johnston Ridge Observatory in 2007. She told me her husband got off work that morning and stopped by Silver Lake, just east of Castle Rock and I-5, to take a look at the mountain. That was just before 8:30. He continued on to their home just north of the lake and went to bed. Several hours later they were told to evacuate. They never heard a thing. In Portland, it was quiet as well, yet people much further away heard the rumbling. A high school student in Newport, Oregon, 140 miles away, was able to capture the odd sound pulses on an inexpensive tape recorder. More than twenty years later he realized nobody else had recorded the sound.

After the eruptions of 1980 subsided, there was some lava dome building inside the crater in 1986. Then in 2004, another dome building event began between the 1986 dome and the south rim of the crater. This continued for several years and the new dome was bigger than the older one by April 2007. Activity dwindled in 2008 and was declared over on July 10, 2008. The new and larger dome is still 195 feet below the lowest point of the south rim.

Mount St. Helens can be reached by driving south on I-5 from the Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia area or north on I-5 from the Portland area. From either direction, take Exit 49 and head east on State Route 504, the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway. Check your gas gauge when you get off the interstate. There are gas stations there, and very few to the east. It's 52 miles to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, which is over 4,000 feet higher than Castle Rock, and there are no gas stations for the last 30 miles of that drive.

The season for visiting Mount St. Helens is relatively short. The road to the Johnston Ridge Observatory can remain closed by snow into May. It opened in mid-May in 2009 with warnings that snow could be expected above 3,500 feet. The observatory closes on October 31, although snow could make that earlier.

Visit the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument website for up to date information. During the season, the observatory is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m seven days a week. The website also contains information about snow closures for other roads, such as Forest Road 99 which leads to Bear Meadow and Windy Ridge and is accessed from Randle or Cougar, and climbing information.

Five miles east of I-5 is the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center, now run by Washington State Park and Recreation Commission after federal cutbacks which also closed the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center further up the road. This latter closing means there is no food available close to the mountain. There are places to eat near I-5 and only a few further up 504.

The Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center is located 27 miles east of I-5, about halfway to Johnston Ridge. It features a full-service restaurant with great views of Mount St. Helens. Helicopter rides up the valley to the mountain are also available.

The Forest Learning Center, 33 miles east of I-5 is run as a joint venture by logging company Weyerhaeuser, the Washington Department of Transportation, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. In addition to exhibits about Mount St. Helens and the eruption, the center also features exhibits about forestry practices. Just outside the south side of the building is a small hill with a path to a viewpoint offering excellent views of the Toutle River Valley. The center is open from May to October free of charge.

There are some spectacular views along 504. You'll be able to see the Toutle River Valley, which is not as narrow or as deep as it was prior to 1980 due to the huge mud and debris flows. There are several places to stop to see the sights. If you want to get an aerial view of the mountain, there is a helicopter service offering rides.

The Hoffstadt Creek Bridge crosses 370 feet above the creek just inside the blast zone on the Spirit Lake Memorial Highway on the way to Mount St. Helens. While there are living trees inside the blast zone today, they all started growing after 1980. There are thousands of dead trees lying in rows facing away from whichever direction the blast came from in that mountainous area.

After passing the closed Coldwater Ridge center, you'll descend a few hundred feet to the level of Coldwater Lake, which did not exist before the eruption. You will want to stop on your way back from Johnston Ridge since you need a pass to visit the lake, and those are available at the observatory. From the lake you'll follow South Coldwater Creek up a small and desolated valley, then there's a half loop and you begin the climb up Johnston Ridge.

Loowit Viewpoint is just around the shoulder of the ridge. It's worth a stop and some pictures. From there it's only a short drive to the observatory itself. There's a large parking lot that accommodates cars, RVs and buses.

You'll take a short walk from the parking lot through a small gap to the observatory. Just inside is where you purchase your pass and wristband. The cost is $8.00. If you are 62 or older you can purchase a $10 lifetime pass to all National Parks and Federal Recreation Areas. The lifetime pass is also good for up to three adults in the same non-commercial vehicle.

Once you're wristbanded, you can roam about the observatory and on the trails outside. There's a movie shown every half hour that is highly recommended. Inside there's a large model of the mountain with interactive features, several seismographs reporting from sites up on the mountain itself, a small gift shop, and restrooms.

In the viewing area outdoors, park rangers give talks about the mountain, the eruptions, and nature's efforts at recovery. Looking into the valley with binoculars, you may be able to spot some elk.

There's a paved trail that leads up to the top of the ridge for more viewing, then it leads east to a curved granite memorial with the names of the 57 people who lost their lives when the mountain blew. The trail continues around the back of the ridge to the parking lot and back up to the observatory.

On your way back from the observatory, you can stop at Coldwater Lake and take the quarter-mile trail, part of it on a boardwalk, to view the lake. The small steep-sided island in the lake is actually part of the mountain that landed there in the blast. The road out is the same as the road in, so if you passed by any sights before, you can catch them on the way back.

After a visit in June 2006, when clouds obscured part of the mountain, my sister and I were rewarded with a rainbow over the Toutle River Valley as we were driving away from Mount St. Helens.