Mount Saint Helens with Spirit Lake.

On May 18, 1980 Mount St Helens erupted with a blast force equal to 24 megatons of TNT. Virtually everything within an 8 mile radius was obliterated, this area is called the Direct blast zone. My son and I took a hike in the next zone out called the Channelized blast zone, this zone extended out as far as 19 miles in some areas. In this zone trees were broken off at the base and laid down in a parallel alignment, you can also find in this zone areas that were somewhat protected from the blast, the evidence to this is all of the standing dead trees.

I have been very interested in this area since the eruption and what the re-vegetation looks like. So thirty six plus years later my son and I decided to hike up to Norway Pass and then on to Mount Margaret, This hike gave us some very spectacular views of MT ST Helens, Spirit Lake and the surrounding areas. From one of our vantage points we could see five of the Stratovolcano’s in the Cascade’s. Mount Saint Helens, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson, the latter two are in Oregon.

On our hike we noticed that there are areas that are starting to be repopulated with Douglas Fir trees, some of the trees topping out at ten to twenty feet in height. The trail up had a large amount of flowering plants to look at and enjoy, there was Harsh and Scarlet Indian Paint Brush, Crimson Columbine, White Avalanche Lily, Beargrass, Columbian Lily, Rosy Spiraea, Tailed Kittentails, Bigleaf Lupine, Subalpine Mariposa Lily, Cliff Beardtongue just to name a few, plus there are several types of grass growing as well as several other varieties of trees.

Dave and Josh on top of Mount Margaret

As far as wildlife there was the Ground Squirrels, Toads, Garter Snakes, and a large variety of birds. We did not see any larger animals however there was a fare amount of Elk tracks on the majority of the hike, and we also know that there are predators in the area, the evidence for this is the occasional pile of scat loaded with fir

Being out in a wilderness like this can make a man seem so small, I marvel at what a great and creative God that we have that created the vast universe right down to the smallest detail. You can see the pattern and design of the Creator’s Hand in the intricate detail of flowers, pine cones, Leaves, Trees, the pattern and beauty in a butterfly’s wings, and a woodpecker feeding it’s young in one of the standing dead trees. It is truly amazing how God set up his creation so that new life comes out of such devastation. I believe it does our souls good to go out into the wilderness and seek a quiet place and here the whisper of God, so often we do not here him in the business of our workplace world.

Pictures were taken with Canon body’s 6D and 7D. Lenses were the 24-105mm L, 100-400mm L, 100mm Macro L, and the Sigma 10-20mm The camera bodies and lenses were supported using the Benro A-269M8 tripod with the Benro BH-1-M Ballhead. This is a great Tripod to take along on hikes as it folds up small and it does a great job of supporting the camera gear in the field.

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