Day 16 - Mount St Helens

Tillamook To an Eruption!

Sadly we did not get to visit the cheese factory dispite its 8am opening time & offers of
cheese & WINE!

Cannon Beach... a brief stop

Lunch here

Our first port of call was the Mount St Helens visitor centre,

We viewed an instructional video on how to set off a volcanic eruption, we wandered round the exhibits then continued to the various view points of Mt St Helens.

The mountain used to be a beautiful symetrical shape , capped with snow ,

On 18th May 1980 an earthquake shook the region & The entire north side out the mountain, Bloated by enormous quantities of magma split away & became the largest recorded landslide ever.57 people lost their lives & a 7 mile high plume of ash was visible for 9 hours following the eruption, The Volcano is now missing the entire northen side & is still active, it has managed to replace approx 5% of its lost matter with new molten rock,

The landscape is gradually being regenerated & new plants are taking hold, the devestation remains glaringly obvious.

We went to Coldwater Lake, a new lake formed by the lava flows, it is attracting lots of new
life & is already beautiful.

We arrived in Woodland late & tired,

Unfortunately we were unable to meet with our american friend Robert who is with his Grandma near to St Helens..Maybe next time.

I had Razor clams for dinner, Seems they are meant to taste like deep fried boot leather, Min struck lucky with a kids spag bol..we shall sleep well tonight.