AUGUST 2, 2006

Sean's parents were visiting and we wanted to do something interesting, so we went to Mt. St. Helens for the day!

Valentine & Bernard would very much like to know why they've been left out of our plans. (pets are not allowed on the mountain)

It is very hard to capture in pictures just how humbling an experience it is to be standing in front of a volcano that is actively rebuilding itself before your very eyes. The area still looks much like the surface of the moon, so there is very little to see in comparison to the scale of the mountain...everything is a lot larger than it appears!

From the visitor's center, about 60 miles away	The rushing creek bed, cutting through the debris valley	Peeking out from behind the clouds	Looming in the distance
One of these things is not like the others!	You can see just how deep the Lahar flow was on that morning in 1980	The debris valley is REALLY wide	Getting closer!
And closer!	Weyerhauser has planted Norfolk Pines all over. They look like those Magic Eye posters	Some lucky buggers are getting a helicopter tour!	About 30 miles away
Alien landscape	A lady is never without her lipstick!	Fallen logs greeting you at Johnston Ridge Observatory	The dome is slowly rebuilding
Impossible scale	What's left of Spirit Lake. Everything is under 300' of ash	Snow and ice run-off	New material since the steam eruptions started in the fall of 2004
Steam rising from the dome	Anyone for a facial?	Tolkien inspired?	Breathtaking...
...but unbreathable	Matchsticks	Spirit Lake. Only spirits are left.	Bleak sentinels
Beauty can occur anywhere	Something old; Something new	Strength amongst such chaos	Compass of Destruction
Happy family! (minus the photographer)