Mt St Helen's Continued, 3

Husband and I decided to save Coldwater Lake for the drive out instead of in and we were glad we did. We got more sunlight up on the mountain (where you need to be more careful) and were still rewarded with gorgeous vistas and an uber easy trek around the lake (They're were some great paved paths here and easy well delineated hiking).

I've always thought this Eiseley quote is so beautiful and was happy to see it posted on the trailhead.

Isn't the lake truly magical? It's crystal clear and you can see right down to its volcanic rock base.

You can also see Mt St Helen's peaking out at you amidst the now thriving trees.

It's a beautiful lake and while you can't go swimming you can go boating in electric motorized or non-motorized boats.

The lake itself is actually filled with water drained from a fellow lake nearby in order to prevent that lake from overflowing and flooding the town after the eruption when all the old glacial ice was melting. Pretty cool, right? Plus, the animals love it. But even with all the new life surrounding the lake you still see a lot of tree stumps dotting the landscape where the blast from eruption blew them down...

There are, however, really beautiful Birch forests that ring the lake. They were planted post eruption to help re-build the area. Birch are one of my favorites. They are so elegant with their tall, slender, silvered trunks...

Since it was summertime there we also flowers blooming everywhere. I liked these purple ones (I think they're foxglove?) the best. Stunning, right?

The path through the woods was pretty beautiful too...

the sun sinking down below the hills.

Kisses,

K

(All images taken and owned by Krista Carson, please ask permission and credit when using.)

Posted with love, please credit when re-posting.

Mt St Helen's Continued 2

Once we left the ridge by the observatory we drove a bit further away and came across another awesome viewpoint.

You could really see the effects of the blast zone here. The blown over trees were mostly still intact in this area because, while this area was still devastated, the lava flow did not turn it to ash.

You see an completely uprooted tree here as well as the new life springing up around it.

We hiked a bit down a narrow mountainside trail and were rewarded with continuously fantastic views as we went. You can't really see how steep and tiny the trail is here... It was big enough to hike on but you really had to watch your footing on the loose slippery ash the trail was made of!

We were really enjoying ourselves and were debating whether or not to go "just a bit further" when the sun starting setting lower and we spotted a cougar about fifty yards away down slope...

So... We decided we better keep one eye on the cougar and head back but he disappeared into the brush pretty fast so no picture and no lingering (we couldn't tell which way it went!)... Even on the way back the trail afforded supe beautiful views though!

I was trying to show how steep it really was but with all the grass growing off the nutrient rich ash you really can't tell in the pics.

But, here is one last pic of this trail anyway. A pre-requisite shadow picture. My Husband and I have been taking them for years just about everywhere we go. (I even had a really special one I did as a gift for our anniversary back when we were dating in an art show once. This one wasn't so arty though, just for memories.)

Till the 'morrow...

Kisses,

K

(All images taken and owned by Krista Carson, please ask permission and credit when using.)

Posted with love, please credit when re-posting.

Mt St Helen's Continued

Our road trip out to Mt St Helen's was awesome! We saw so many great things I wanted to share a bunch more.

The volcano was was beautiful and the recovering landscape was amazing too.

This map shows where the photos were taken from at the Johnston Observatory Ridge.

Here's a photo of the current seismic activity. You can see Mt St Helen's reflected from outside the observatory window.

The information available inside was super great and interactive! If your into geology it's awesome! If your not, it helps explain what's going on in a fun way.

The volcano isn't supposed to erupt again anytime soon but is still active.

This is a sign discussing life before the eruption versus after.

In this photo you can see the two big grey chunks of granite off in the distance that actually used to be the top of the mountain. When it erupted they blew off.

Once Mt St Helen's lost her top the mountain ended up with a sort of flattened bowl left for a top.

Me and the volcano! I was super psyched!

It's hard to tell how massive everything actually is from the photos. There were actually some rather large elk in this photo but they could only be seen with magnification. (And there was steam rising out most of the time we were there, so cool!)

I thought this was a neat elevation chart.

To the left of the mountain is a giant pumice field you can hike out to.

There are remnants of ash flows left leading from the volcano throughout the valley. Some have small rivers running through them but overall they're pretty wide and mostly just, well, ash. It's neat to see life growing up around the remaining ash.

You can see felled trees all over the place that flattened out in a radial pattern from the blast zone. The reddish cast you see is actually small red flowers.

You can see a small river glinting in the sun in this ash flow off to the far left of St Helen's.

The Johnston Observatory Ridge is a fantastic lookout. I highly recommend making the drive out to it if your ever in Mt St Helen's National Monument!

Kisses,

K

(All images taken and owned by Krista Carson, please ask permission and credit when using.)

Posted with love, please credit when re-posting.