Riding to the Carnage of Mount St. Helen Volcanic National Monument

Sept 12/14  Weather has turned hot again, 82 today night 54.  What a swing in temps in 24 hours.  Supposed to stay this way for another week. 
Washington state is becoming one of our new favourite places to ride.   It seems the scenic roads and byways are never ending.  We are halfway down the state in a park that is run by the Tacoma Public Utilities - Mossyrock Park on Riffe Lake and Mossyrock Dam.  Being a public park we have 30 amp and water only but all the sites are paved and we have a nice long pull thru with a view of the lake.  This is really a great spot and close to Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helen Volcanic National Monument and Mount Adams.    Who can choose where to ride to first?
Leaving camp we ride through christmas tree farms and rolling pasture before we turn and find ourselves driving in the thick of Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

We feel dwarfed on the forest road for about 20 miles by the towering Douglas Firs and Hemlocks.    Then taking the Windy Ridge scenic drive to the edge of the volcano line we suddenly loose all the forest around us to the Trees that Were.

the trees that were

giant trees burned alive 24 years ago... no guard rail and severe drop off

see the road breakdown, as well some green growth returning

When Mount St. Helen blew the heat and gases turned the living forest into these bare grey sticks.  This devastation happened not that long ago, 1980 and another eruption again in 2004.    The road snakes its way along the edge of the mountain for 17 miles with no guard rail and much of the road continues to heave up with some small rocks sliding onto it - most of the ride is 25 to 30 mph and it needs to be taken slowly to be safe.  The entire area is having continuous micro-earthquakes so the roadway keeps eroding. 

our ride looking at Mount Adams

As we look off in the distance we can see another peak - Mount Adams. 

Spirit Lake and the floating trees

 Eventually we make it to the viewpoint where you can see Spirit Lake filled with dead trees on the banks and the gaping crater itself is only 5 miles away. 

Crater of Mount St. Helen

in 3 minutes it blew off 1300 feet of the top of the mountain - more than 200 square miles

it's not really smoking but merely dust blowing from an easterly wind

Lives lost in the Blow in 1980 were 57,,,,, one touching story is of Harry Randall Truman.  He was the owner of Spirit Lake Lodge and at 83 he felt that "If this place is gonna go, I want to go with it, 'cause if I lost it, it would kill me in a week anyway".  Harry Truman was the only person who refused to leave his home. Within 90 seconds of the searing 200 mph blast, an avalanche of ash, mud and debris reached Spirit Lake. The waters of the lake were sloshed 800ft up the mountain and the Mount St. Helen's Lodge was buried beneath several hundred feet of volcanic debris. No trace of Harry Truman was ever found. Today, Harry's Ridge, overlooking the site, and a Truman's Trail which cuts nearby, are named for him. "I've lived here over 50 years...That mountain's part of Harry and Harry's a part of that mountain"