Mt St Helens

tilman

All-Pro
Location
Portland, OR
hiked an afternoon around Mt St Helens this sunday. With my lovely wife, great weather and my camera bag :) (OMD-EM5 and a couple of lenses)

the beginning and end of the hike (well, actually we still had to walk quite a bit from here to Johnston Ridge Observatory :)
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Mt St Helens by tilman paulin, on Flickr


the first "big climb" - Mt Adams in the distance
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the first big climb by tilman paulin, on Flickr


at one point wild strawberries covered the entire mountain side... their wonderful smell was so strong, it was a bit cruel :)
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the smell of strawberries by tilman paulin, on Flickr


picnic spot after the first big climb - view towards the Cascades in the east - Spirit Lake in the midground
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picnic spot by tilman paulin, on Flickr


nature is slowly retaking the areas that weren't covered by the mudslides... the stumps of the forest that the blast wave felled will stay a bit longer...
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Coldwater Peak Hike by tilman paulin, on Flickr


the speed of the blast wave was about 500mph... unimaginable forces really...
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blast range by tilman paulin, on Flickr


the side of the mountain that collapsed in 1980 - there has been activity since then, growing back a small part of the mountain in the collapsed crater
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Mt St Helens by tilman paulin, on Flickr


Spirit Lake and Mt Adams on our way back down in the afternoon
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Spirit Lake by tilman paulin, on Flickr


we were already in the car on our way home when we spotted this - thankfully the US is really good with viewpoints and places to stop your car when you see something beautiful :)
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moon over Mt St Helens by tilman paulin, on Flickr

full set is here: Mt St Helens - a set on Flickr
 
Great photos Tilman! What a beautiful scenery. Looks like you and the mrs. did some serious hiking/climbing there. Are wild strawberries edible? I'm assuming that they are not, hence your "cruel" remark?
 
Great photos Tilman! What a beautiful scenery. Looks like you and the mrs. did some serious hiking/climbing there. Are wild strawberries edible? I'm assuming that they are not, hence your "cruel" remark?

Thanks Jack! The strawberries actually are edible (at least we had a few and didn't get sick :), but they were quite dusty and hard to pick.
The cruel part was that we were in the middle of this really steep climb, getting a bit thirsty and hungry since it was mid-day, and walking through these clouds of wonderful smell :)

On the plus side, we actually had some strawberries with us as snack, which we had at our picnic. :)
 
Wonderful set! I'm old enough to remember the horror of Mt St Helen's blowing out and how dreadful the aftermath was... its good to see some growth (not so much on the mountain... that lump will "go" one day, too. Lets hope not soon)

Thank you Sue! Yes, it's hard to imagine the extent of the catastrophe back then... especially on a wonderful and sunny day...

If you see the mountain and valley from a distance it's hard to realize that there's an entire forest underneath the surface. When we were driving home at the end of the day, we drove past a river that had cut a small "canyon" into the mud/ash covered valleyground. Tree trunks were poking out of the sides of the "canyon"-walls in all directions. Gave me an idea of the scale of the destruction...
People died too. There was a memorial plaque for them.
This shot is a bit of a "memorial" shot to me:

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Mt St Helens by tilman paulin, on Flickr
 
Very nice set. That's a beautiful area. I lived in Olympia (a bit north of St. Helens) up to 1978, was gone from 79-82, and then lived in that area from '82-92, so somehow managed to just miss the eruptions. They were pretty well forecast and the relatively few who died only died because they wouldn't listen to the instructions to leave their homes. I had friends from Olympia who I ran into at a concert down in Phoenix and they were hauling around a big container of ash that they were selling small quantities of to help finance their trip to the southwest. Which I don't think worked, but it was at least a conversation starter... So I missed it, but the photos of those eruptions were truly amazing. I can't imagine what it'll be like in the region when Rainier goes. Probably won't happen in our lifetimes, but it's just a matter of time...

-Ray
 
Fantastic shots, what lenses did you use?

Thanks! :)
Most of the time I used the Panasonic 20mm. 2 shots in my first post are with the Oly 60mm (strawberries and the closer one of the crater), the "moon" shot is with the Oly 45mm and the 'memorial' shot in the second post is with the Sigma 30mm.
 
Very nice set. That's a beautiful area. I lived in Olympia (a bit north of St. Helens) up to 1978, was gone from 79-82, and then lived in that area from '82-92, so somehow managed to just miss the eruptions. They were pretty well forecast and the relatively few who died only died because they wouldn't listen to the instructions to leave their homes. I had friends from Olympia who I ran into at a concert down in Phoenix and they were hauling around a big container of ash that they were selling small quantities of to help finance their trip to the southwest. Which I don't think worked, but it was at least a conversation starter... So I missed it, but the photos of those eruptions were truly amazing. I can't imagine what it'll be like in the region when Rainier goes. Probably won't happen in our lifetimes, but it's just a matter of time...

-Ray

Thank you Ray, very interesting! Good to know that there were forecasts. Let's hope these work for the next time. We're living in Portland at the moment, Mt Hood isn't too far away. :)
Oh well, all part of this natural world we're part of. Good sides and bad. I'm thankful that I can experience the beautiful side most of the time!
 
Especially like the strawberries and the last shot. Excellent shots. Seeing those, I'm sure your wife puts up with the cameras and stopping to take snaps - most of the time. :)
 
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