Mt. Saint Helens, Washington

My daughter and I drove north to visit Mt. Saint Helens today. When her mother and I first got together it was a couple of months before Mt. Saint Helens blew up in 1980. So, even though I had never driven up close to it before dead trees all blown down the same direction still there on the ground in many places or where the trees were shielded from the direct blast they were cooked dead but still the dead trees are standing today as could be observed.

I sort of wished they had rebuilt the paved road (504) I believe a little closer to the mountain but other than that there still was a good view close up across the river and valley of where it had blown up about 33 years ago now.

They label the blast zone which lets you know literally everything (including humans) have been transported in since then. Nothing living above ground survived that we know of that was in the blast zone. At one point all the people that died from the unexpected explosion of Mt. Saint Helens are memorialized along the paved trail at one point at the very top of the mountain if you walk in the right direction or ask a ranger to see it.

1. 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens‎

   In 1980, a major volcanic eruption occurred at Mount St. Helens, a volcano located in Washington, in the United States. The eruption (which was a VEI 5 event) ...
   

   ‎Reid Blackburn - ‎Harry Randall Truman - ‎Lava dome - ‎Lassen Peak
2. 
   

   Mount St. Helens - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_St._Helens‎

   Jump to Human impact from the 1980 eruption - Man sitting at a campsite · David A. Johnston hours before he was killed by the eruption. Fifty-seven ...
3. 
   

   Mount St. Helens Eruption Podcast - YouTube

   ► 3:12► 3:12

   www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs9nj9phpeQ

   Mar 7, 2013 - Uploaded by usdaForestService

   Monument Scientist, Peter Frenzen, shares the dramatic events occurring May 18, 1980 and changing the ...
   
   Fifty-seven people were killed, including innkeeper Harry R. Truman, photographer Reid Blackburn and geologist David A. Johnston.<sup>[3]
   (when the major eruption occurred.)
   
   I was also told a story about a native American Medicine man who was camping there and when he got up to relieve himself near the edge of a cliff overlooking the water, the blast blew him into the water where he was scrambling to stay alive while being hit by trees, branches and other debris that had been also knocked into the water by the concussion. When he finally clawed his way to the surface everyone camping with him was dead and he was the only human left alive for miles and all the trees were knocked down and gone for miles too.</sup>