Well, That Volcano’s Nekkid

Saturday’s excursion to Mount St. Helens with Suzanne was a complete success. Well, it feels like it was even though we didn’t make it to both of the visitor’s centers I wanted to scope out. That ended up not mattering a bit because we had so much fun. Wish you were there!

Image is a selfie of Suzanne, who is flashing a peace sign, and me smiling in front of Mount St. Helens.
Suzanne, moi, et Mount St. Helens.

Suzanne was kind enough to drive, so I got to lookie-Lou the whole way up. We realized when we got close that Mount St. Helens wasn’t just a dirty girl – she was almost completely nude! She only had a few tiny patches of snow clinging to her. We pulled off at the Elk Rock Viewpoint and had a long look. You can see how nekkid she is. Even Mount Adams, lurking over the ridge to the left there, has been stripped of much of its snow cover. This heat wave is srs bidness!

A sweeping view of Mount St. Helens at the right. It is dark gray-brown and almost completely devoid of snow. There are only a few white streaks clinging to the crater rim. There are avalanche tracks down the slope on the right. Over to the left, Mount Adams pokes above a ridge. It's usually quite white, but this time, it has dark streaks down its flanks where snow has melted off.
A nearly-nude Mount St. Helens is peeped at by a partially-disrobed Mount Adams.

We made it to our main goal in time, which was to visit the new Science and Learning Center at Coldwater Ridge. It was so awesome! It has so much science! There were volcano camps happening all over, and some very neato 3-D displays. Suzanne does the Vanna White thing at the one showing the lahars.

Image shows Suzanne standing in front of a huge 3 dimensional wall mural depicting Mount St. Helens and the paths and destruction of various lahars from the May 18th eruption. She is pointing to Mount St. Helens with one hand, and the location of the Coldwater Ridge Science and Learning Center with the other.
I’ll take an L, Vanna, and I’d like to solve the puzzle: Mudflow!

A lot of the exhibits focus on the biology, which is fine for them as likes it. I took pictures of all of them and will look over them later. There’s also a great interactive touch-screen thingy showing various aspects of the eruption and how the landscape has evolved through the last 30 years (it ends in 2010), which was incredibly neato and kept us occupied for a while! We never did go see the movie, but we’ll do that on a future visit.

We went outside, which is where the spectacular view over Coldwater Lake is. Look at how pretty! And you can see the delta so well!

From left to right, bottom to top: Image shows an arm of Coldwater Lake, the broad delta left where Coldwater Creek dumps its sediment load as it enters the lake, Johnston Ridge (which is bald on top), and Mount St. Helens.  To the center and right are a portion of Coldwater Ridge, the North Fork TOutle River Valley, and Spud Mountain.
A panoramic view of Mount St. Helens and Coldwater Lake.

We phutzed around out there for a while, enjoying the views. The little Hummock Island was particularly adorable:

Image shows a portion of Coldwater Lake, with an island formed from a landslide hummock. It has a wee tree on top.
Hummock Island from the top of Coldwater Ridge.

We also spent much more time in the gift shop than we probably should’ve. Look what I got!

Image shows USGS geologist Richard Waitt's book In the Path of Destruction: Eyewitness Chronicles of Mount St. Helens on a shelf in the gift shop.
Richard Waitt has a book! I never knew!

Yes, that is USGS geologist Richard Waitt’s book, which I had no idea existed. It is a thick tome chronicling the survivors’ stories, and it looks scrumptious. It’s sitting beside me right now. I am utterly dying to rip off the plastic wrapper and devour it, but I wanted to get your pictures to you first, my darlings. I make such profound sacrifices for you.

I also picked up a thin trail guide, which doesn’t have much in the way of detail, but is apparently worth nearly $1,000 on Amazon. The Coldwater Ridge visitor’s center is a bit more reasonable and cost me only six bucks, which is another point in their favor. It will point me toward more adventures I can have for you, so that you can live vicariously through me, or if you’re very lucky live yourselves! Maybe we can even have them together! Let me know if you’re going to be visiting and want to coordinate. Also, if you want a copy of that book, I can pick it up for you next time we visit the mountain. Please don’t pay nearly $1,000, okay?

I also got a big print of one of Keith Ronholm’s photos, signed by him, for a mere $15. This gift shop rules! Once I get the print properly framed, I’ll show you it.

After the visitor’s center, where we had a lively talk with one of the science guys who is putting together a presentation on lahars and will hopefully send it to me, we decided to drive up Johnston Ridge and visit Loowit Viewpoint, which I’d never seen. I don’t know why I’ve never stopped there before – it’s magnificent! Look at this view:

Mount St. Helens from Loowit Viewpoint. You're not looking directly into the crater as you are from Johnston Ridge Observatory just down the way, but it's a much better look at the North Fork Toutle River Valley and the hummocks.
Mount St. Helens from Loowit Viewpoint.

There are lots of trails there, too, so I’m hoping to kidnap B from his job this fall and go hike them. If I can’t have him, I’ll find someone else. Perhaps one of you! I am dying to explore those trails, but we are NOT doing it in this heat wave.

After Loowit, we turned around and went down to Coldwater Lake, where Suzanne had her first hike since shattering her leg. She did great! She made it all the way out to the boardwalk at the end, and got to see all the pretty water and forget-me-nots and cattails and stranded blast-stripped logs. Since she was a biology buff in high school, she was in heaven. Then we came back before her leg could give her a gigantic f-u, and we watched the people playing in the water by the delta. I have never in my life seen so many people swimming there. In fact, this is the first time I recall seeing any. This lake is as advertised: cold water. But it must’ve been great in the 90+ degree heat! If you enlarge this photo and look closely at the boy in the blue shorts, you will see he is paddling a log with another log. It was epic.

Image is looking down Coldwater Lake, showing the ridge beside it and the glacial moraine in the distance. To the right. part of the delta is visible. Many people, most of them children, are swimming and splashing in the area around the delta. One is a boy in blue shorts, sitting on a huge log, paddling it around with a smaller log.
People playing in Coldwater Lake.

Don’t freak out at their faces: I’m the one who smoothed out the features. They’re not suffering from The Wire’s face-eating powers.

It was too late by the time we finished to hit up the VC at Silver Lake, and we were hungry, so we headed to Patty’s Place and munched our heads off. It was so delicious! And then we headed back to Suzanne’s home, where we sadly had to part ways, because I was jonesing for my kitty and so didn’t spend the night. But I did give little Token, her very cute Yorkie, plenty of scritchins before I left. When I got home, Pipa was so excited to see me that she ignored her daddy and forced me to give her a walk, which is why this is even later than it should have been. And Misha even seems happy to see me. So the day was an all round spectacular success, and Suzanne and I are committed to going back early and often to bring you even more Mount St. Helens goodness, because we know you love it. Besides, it’s good PR for me, because she tells everyone we run into that I’m writing a book! Which reminds me:

Image is a slightly expanded crop of me with Mount St. Helens from May 2007. Caption reads, "Yes, I am indeed writing a Mount St. Helens book!"
Your friendly reminder, just in case you were still doubting.

But I’m going to read Richard Waitt’s book first!

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Well, That Volcano’s Nekkid
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3 thoughts on “Well, That Volcano’s Nekkid

  1. rq
    1

    *does a little dance*
    I’m sorry, I just don’t know quite what to say right now, because all the photos and the weather (okay, hot, but gorgeous) and… and… and… the nekkid mountain!!! Naughty, Ms Helens, naughty! Especially love the view from Loowit this time. So much to look at and puzzle out and explooooooorrre… one day. Have to put the science centre on the list, too – love these sorts of things as learning experiences, for me and the kids. One day.
    Oh! And! Hooray for Suzanne and her leg, may more hikes be in store!

  2. 3

    I’m continuing to enjoy all your Mount St. Helens blogs. You’ve had some really fun trips! Makes me want to head down that way. I can’t wait for your book to come out!!

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