Mt St Helens (morning)

Part of the reason for our meeting Crystal and Grant in Randle, Washington, was because we all wanted to go see Mt. St. Helens.  After playing with Avery, eating some breakfast, and playing with Avery some more, we all got in our car and headed for the Windy Ridge Observation Point of Mt. St. Helens.

Pete (the campground owner) gave us a couple of maps to follow to get us to Mt. St. Helens.  He said just turn right at the stop sign and follow the map.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize he meant the stop sign right at the entrance to the park.  I thought he meant the stop sign down the road a little ways. 

So, we turned down this gravel road (which should have been our first clue),

but I thought well this was the way to go and would just get us more quickly over to NF25, the road we needed to be on go to Windy Ridge.

Avery was quickly asleep for her 1st nap of the day.

When we weren't in the forest,

 

we had some nice views of the surrounding mountains,

 

and the hillside we were traveling on.

We didn't see any cars except when we passed by a couple of people working the road.  However, when we got to this big log on the road, we begin to wonder if we had taken the correct turn.

And then this log partially blocking the road.

Part of my problem in my giving them directions (besides not turning right at the correct stop sign) was that (1) I did not wait for the GPS on my phone to lock in and (2) our RV/Car GPS did not have directions to Windy Ridge so all I could use it for was just to tell where we were.  When my phone GPS finally locked in, I realized we (seemingly) were way off course.  The blue dot is where we were; the blue line is the road where we were supposed to be.

MiMa (me) began to panic just a little.  It would not have bothered me as much if it were just Chuck and me; but we had Crystal, Grant and Avery with us.  Chuck kept telling me not to worry because we had plenty of gas and we could always turn back if we needed to.  I gave the map to Grant and between his looking at the map, Crystal's looking at the map on RV/Car GPS, and my following the (now working) GPS on my phone, we finally got over to NF-25.  I was never so glad to see an asphalt highway (NF-25) in my life!

After looking at where we had driven on Google Maps later that evening, I realized that we only drove about 7 miles out of the way but, at the time, it seemed more like 100 miles to me. 

Once we reached NV-25, we had to drive back north 2.2 miles on NF-25 to NF-99, the road to Windy Ridge.   After just a few minutes on NF-99, we began to see Mt. St. Helens in the distance.  (Note:  I also realized after seeing Mt. St. Helens that it was Mt. Adams we saw coming into Randle rather than Mt. St. Helens.  I have corrected that post.)

We also had some awesome views of the hills and valleys surrounding Mt. St. Helens.

As we crossed the "Blast Edge", the destruction from the eruption of 33 years ago became more and more apparent.

Unlike Yellowstone and Glacier where the trees are already coming back after massive forest fires, the land is still fairly bare in a lot of places surrounding Mt. St. Helens.

When we pulled off at Smith Creek viewing point, we could see Spirit Lake down below...

...with the floating log mat still in place that was caused by the eruption.

We drove on just a few more miles to the Windy Ridge viewpoint. 

From the parking lot, you could see Spirit Lake and the floating log mat covering the northeast end of the lake.

There were logs along the other edges of the lake as well.

Avery had awoken several miles back (when we got off the gravel road) and by now, she was ready to eat!  So Crystal fed her a bottle while Chuck attempted to clean some of the gravel road dust off the car.

Avery did a much better job eating her lunch...

...than Chuck did cleaning the back of the car.

We decided to hike up the "step-trail" to the top of Windy Ridge behind the parking lot. 

The flowers and the views were magnificent.

On the climb up and at the top of Windy Ridge, we could see three other volcanos besides Mt. St. Helens.  Mt. Adams off to the east:

Mt. Rainier to the north:

We could just barely see Mt. Hood to the south:

And of course, we had a perfect view of Mt. St. Helens.

We could even see this waterfall on the side of Mt. St. Helens.

Avery made it all the way up to the top of Windy Ridge too!

We spent several minutes just looking Mt. St. Helens and imagining what it must have looked like and felt like when it exploded in 1980 and reading more about what happened with the eruption.

Per the information signs at the top of Windy Ridge, the eruption caused a landslide so big that it "raced 1,200 feet up the ridge, scoured it down to bedrock and then plunged into Spirit Lake." (see yellow line)  "Mt. St. Helens Lodge was destroyed by the lateral blast, then buried beneath the landslide deposit and Spirit Lake.  The location lies approximately 240 feet beneath today's lake surface."  (see red circle) 

Regarding the floating log mat, "as the landslide plunged into Spirit Lake, it drove water 826 feet up the opposite ridges.  Returning waves dragged these trees, already toppled by the lateral blast, into the lake."

We were all very impressed by the views and magnitude of what had happened with the Mt. St. Helens eruption...

...especially Avery.  :)

After our "step-hike" to the top of Windy Ridge, we drove back the correct way to the camper for some lunch.  Pa and Avery enjoyed a little time together before we headed back out to Mt. Rainier (afternoon post).

Below is a video from the top of Windy Ridge for your enjoyment.