Mt St Helens and Coldwater Lake

I first visited Mt St Helens about 2 weeks after the roads were reopened to the public following the disastrous 1980 blast that blew out the side of the mountain. I think that was probably 1981, about a year after the explosion. I recall a scene of utter devastation – millions of trees blown flat as far as the eye could see, all pointing in the same direction, away from the mountain. Ash covered everything. No living plants anywhere. It was like a forest turned into a desert.

So I was curious to see what the area looked like after some 35 years of recovery. Well, the change is remarkable. The mountainsides are densely covered with evergreens. Not a flattened tree in sight. The snow-capped mountain is still beautiful, if ominous.

I got my first look at Coldwater Lake, too. This lake did not exist in 1980 and probably was just forming in 1981. It is a large lake that was created when millions of cubic yards of earth from the mountain were blown into the valley, damming the river. It is a beautiful mountain lake and arguably now provides more spectacular vistas than the mountain itself.

Getting to the lake is no easy chore. It is about 60 miles from I-5, elevated about 3,000 feet. It took me about 90 minutes to get there, with all the picture-taking stops. But it was worth the trip.

My biggest disappointment was that the volcano itself is now off-limits to the public. You can get some nice photos, but you can’t get onto the mountain itself. My recollection from 1981 was that the public could drive up the mountain. Not to the cone, but close enough that you could get some very close-up pictures. No more.