Mt. St. Helens
Woman in the Middle | October 8, 2014On our recent trip, we drove from Seattle to Portland. On the way, we decided to stop at the Mt. St. Helen’s Visitor Center, conveniently located near Interstate 5.
I was 18 when Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980. This was before the internet and social media so I mainly got my news about the eruption though the newspaper. Photos in a newspaper just couldn’t convey the force of the eruption. It was amazing to see film of the event at the visitor’s center and be reminded of what happened at that time. I knew that over 50 people lost their lives that day. What I did not remember is that many of them were there monitoring the situation, such as ham radio operators and geologists, and were miles away when they lost their lives, the force was just that great.
The visitor’s center includes many interesting displays and a short movie you can watch. As an added bonus, they have a short half mile or so nature trail that takes you out into the woodlands and marsh area near the visitors center. It as a very easy walk and we enjoyed seeing the various plants and wildlife native to the area. Since it was the middle of September, we didn’t see as many flowers and animals as I am sure you would see in the spring or summer, but we did still see some pretty flowers and, much to our delight, we saw several garter snakes.
This is kind of a “where is the snake” photo, but if you look closely you can see the dark striped body of the snake in the middle of the photo.
A few water lilies were still blooming.
If you have time (we didn’t) you can travel another hour on SR 504 and see the Johnston Ridge Observatory. It is close enough to allow you to view Mt. St. Helens. If, like us, you are traveling on I-5 and have limited time, I highly recommend at stop at the Mt. St. Helen’s Visitor’s Center. Our whole family enjoyed it.
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