Mount St. Helens and the Unbelievable Forces of Nature

We spent the first night “boondocking”, which is free, self-sufficient camping legal in the US (not everywhere, though) and it worked perfectly well. After having breakfast at a lake, we spent the day at Mount St Helens. It is hard to put in words and in the first place, hard to comprehend the power set free with the catastrophic eruption in 1980. In just hours, the collapse of the mountain top transformed the densely forested area into the desert-like landscape it is nowadays. A lateral blast literally ripped trees out of the earth. The remaining stumps as well as the toppled trees, scattered in one direction, looking like toothpicks laying around or swimming in Spirit and St. Helens Lake, are still clearly visible. The material from the mountain top went down as a huge landslide. On our way to Coldwater Peak, we were walking on the landslide material and almost couldn't believe how it got there, as Mt St Helens looked far away, and a deep valley was between us and the mountain… We also admired the smooth area around Mt St Helens, caused by hot pyroclastic flows. While hiking, our shoes got white from the ash we were walking on. It was an experience itself to step on it because it feels so soft. From the top of Coldwater Peak, we had a great view of the whole scenery. Taking in the other 3 giant volcanoes Mt Rainier, Mt Adams and Mt Hood while looking at the large crater of Mt St Helens, you feel a bit intimidated…

Click to watch walking on the ashes