We drove to Mount St. Helens today and decided to go to the top while the sun was shining. Rain is forecast for tomorrow. That's a big surprise. Ally loves to climb on the park entrance signs.
From her perch on the park sign she had quite a view of the Toutle Valley below Mount St. Helens. When Mount St. Helens erupted, landslides with giant pieces of the mountain slid into the valley.
As we climbed higher we could see the vast destruction from the landslides and mudflows.
Once we arrived at the top it was time for Ally to attend some Ranger talks and work on her Junior Ranger badge and patch. Our first Ranger program talked about the May 18, 1980 eruption.
Before the May 18th eruption, Mount St. Helens was a glacial covered mountain. It is the most active volcano in the Cascade mountain range. It formed about 50,000 years ago and has had many eruptions over its lifetime to date.
The 1980 eruption, preceded by a 5.1 earthquake that shook the mountain, was a lateral blast where a stone-filled wind blew down and splintered trees as far away as 17 miles from the volcano. The scientists knew it was coming as they could see the bubble forming on the side of the mountain. It was expanding by huge amounts daily and finally blew.
Super heated pumice rocks flowed out and down the north side of the mountain. That is known as a pyroclastic flow.
An ash cloud, known as a vertical plume, shot out of the eruption for 9 hours and carried ash more than 12 miles into the air. Mud flows, or hot rivers of mud, trees, and boulders, traveled down all sides of the mountain.
We finished our tour of the visitor center and it was a lot of fun with all its interactive displays. When we stepped out onto the viewing area Ally spotted another Ranger talk in progress so off she went.
It was really interesting. The Ranger was talking about all the critters that live in the volcano. Living in a volcano is a little risky, don't you think? Its last eruption was in 1986 and more are expected. I think I'd move out of there.
Ranger Grace checked Ally's Junior Ranger wookbook and gave her the Junior Ranger pledge. She was really nice, but then all the Rangers are nice. They are very helpful and want to make sure that everyone learns something about the park.
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