Mt St Helens

Justin was in town last weekend for the long holiday. While most of it was spent working, we did take all of Friday off and drove up to Mt St Helens. On clear days, you can see if from Portland. Everytime I see it in the distance, I always think "we need to go up there." So, Friday was the day.

It was quite amazing. Not is the mountain huge, the surrounding area is still very much scarred 27 years later. It doesn't look bad, but when you remember that you are in the Pacific NW rather than the arid Southwest, it is kind of freaky. Also, while blogger restricts the resolution, you could clearly see the smoke/steam comming up in real life and in a few of the full size pictures. Kind of cool.



From afar

Note that to the right of the picture, no trees. They were blown down in the blast. The ridge protected the trees on the left, but they burned and today are just sticks.
And, for those who I am sure are curious, my "almost showing, but really just chubby looking" self.