Mt St Helens

A short drive north of Portland today into Washington State to visit what remains of Mt St Helens. It is 30 years since it blew itself up so it is the same age as me! It is a pretty amazing sight. It is still doing the tiniest bit of smoking but is half a caldera with the missing half spread out in the valley below, having avalanched off or exploded out of the side. Mt Adams sits not far away and still has its cone top so it's cool to see what St Helen would have looked like.

The devastation that the eruption caused to the surrounding forest is also mind-blowing (or literally tree-blowing), even after 3 decades. 45 metre tall forests just disintegrated and all that remains now are stumps as far as the eye can see.