04/11/2025
NEW TRIP REPORT!! MOUNT ST. HELENS NATIONAL VOLCANIC MONUMENT
"Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" - David A. Johnston (USGS) - May 18, 1980 - 8:32am
These famous last words announced the cataclysmic onset of the most destructive volcanic eruption in modern American history. For two months and three days the mountain dubbed "the American Mount Fugi" (thanks to its near perfect symmetrical 9,677' dome) had rumbled and sputtered as it awoke from its 130 year sleep. Then, on May 18 of 1980, Mount St. Helens finally erupted...though in a manner and with a violence that no one predicted. With the force of 25,000 Hiroshima-size atomic bombs the mountain exploded LATERALLY, instantly blowing off the top 1,300 feet of the peak in a display of self-immolation rarely seen on such a magnitude in the natural world. David Johnston never had a chance. Mere seconds after shouting into his radio the volcano's pyroclastic blast covered the six mile distance to the ridge he was camped atop, obliterating everything in its path. Despite an extensive search, his body was never found.
For nine hours the volcano continued to erupt, creating a towering ash cloud 40 miles wide and reaching 15 miles into the sky. By the next day the mountain began to calm some, and the tremendous scale of the destruction it wrought came into focus. The official death toll from the eruption would end up at 57, though some estimates are even higher. Nearly 250 square miles of forest surrounding the mountain was flattened, with another 300 square miles beyond that classified as 'standing dead' due to the incredible heat released. The landslide accompanying the eruption traveled 17 miles and buried portions of the North and South Fork Toutle River valleys to a maximum depth of 600 feet. Lahars (volcanic mudslides caused by the sudden melting of snow and glaciers) swept downstream nearly 50 miles, destroying over 185 miles of roads and over 200 structures as it went. Mount St. Helens as it was known previously was gone. It's pristine symmetrical dome had been replaced with a vicious-looking open crater nearly two miles across and over 2,000 feet deep. Sometime later that year photographers from National Geographic magazine visited the mountain, to be included in the publications upcoming January 1981 issue. One of those magazines was delivered to a house in Northern Michigan and, a couple years on, a young redheaded geography nerd pulled it off his parents shelf. I've never forgotten that moment.
As I was just shy of my third birthday when Mount St. Helens erupted, I wasn't paying much attention to current events at the time. It wasn't until I was six or seven that I pulled the aforementioned magazine off the shelf and, as soon as I came to the article on the eruption, I was transfixed. My little brain couldn't comprehend the scale of what I was seeing. A mountain blown apart? An entire forest flattened like so many pick-up sticks? I immediately got out my atlas and located the place. Washington state...a long ways away but not so far as to seem unimaginable. It was in the United States, I could go someday. For many of the next years I would find myself in the sandbox or on the beach building volcanoes and "exploding" them outward, just as St. Helens did...burying sticks or rocks as stand-ins for trees or houses. It wasn't until I was older that I could appreciate the terrible human toll. The years never diminished my interest in Mount St. Helens, however. Any time a new article came out or a film, I'd eagerly immerse myself once again. Of particular interest were the studies about how nature was slowly but surely recovering in the zone of destruction surrounding the volcano. First tiny flowers and small animals, then later grasses and shrubs along with aquatic life returning to the streams. I longed to visit Mount St. Helens in person. Many more years passed than I would have liked but finally, this was the trip I could make it happen.
Since the eruption Mount St. Helens it, and 110,000 acres surrounding it were designated as a National Volcanic Monument. Preserving an ecosystem still in recovery and studies of the mountain itself are primary functions of the park. Even so, numerous trails have been constructed around the mountain along with campgrounds and two visitor centers. One of these centers, the Johnston Ridge Observatory, sits atop the same ridge David Johnston did that fateful morning in 1980. Unfortunately on this visit we discovered the road up to the observatory had been closed by a landslide the previous year. That limited our options a bit as to where we could go but soon came upon a nice short loop called the Hummocks Trail. Across the access road from Coldwater Lake the 2.5-mile footpath winds its way out into a landscape formed by the massive landslide of the 1980 eruption. Hummocks being the large hills you'll see which were created by pyroclastic material blown from the mountain. You are walking atop material which was quite literally INSIDE Mount St. Helens prior to 1980. Views of the volcano are also beautiful. Particularly from the large meadow at the south end of the loop where you have an unobstructed view right up into the massive crater, little more than six miles distant. The terrain is a chaotic mess of hills and ponds thus there's numerous small dip and climbs to be had. The trail is well-maintained however, and the elevation change isn't anything one would consider difficult. I'm sure there are more scenic trails in the monument but for what was available to us this trip we were completely satisfied with what the Hummocks Trail had to offer. Finally setting eyes on a landscape that had been known to me for so long only in photos, this was a truly special hike for me. A childhood dream of sorts, now realized. So, before I ramble any longer, it's now my great privilege to invite you along with my son Alex and I as we experience the Hummocks Trail at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. As always...I hope you ENJOY!!
Photo journals of hikes in Michigan, the Great Lakes region, North Carolina and the Rockies. Also an ever-growing collection of lighthouse, waterfall, wildflower and historic site photos.
