Do you remember where you were on May 18th, 1980? I do. I was living in Olympia, Washington and the whole top of Mt St Helens blew off. We drove down to a location where we could see where the mountain used to be. The dark cloud of ash and rocks blanketed the sky. The ash boiled out tens of thousands of feet in the air with lighting streaking through it. It was a true vision of what I’d only seen in books about the making of the earth. The wind carried the ash away from us and darkened much of eastern Washington. People over there got covered with ash from a few inches to depths measured in feet.
The Toutle River overflowed with grey muddy water and thousands of trees well above flood stage. I saw the forested land weeks later where trees five or more feet in diameter were blown down. They looked like grey matchsticks all laying in the same direction. Mother Nature had once again demonstrated her power to reshape the landscape. Today you can travel to Mt. St. Helens and still see some of the damage, but you will also see the rebirth of the forest and mountain meadows. It is truly beautiful.
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