I took this picture on a trip I made to Portland. We wer still in Oregon and a good 20 or more miles away from Mount St. Helens - this should give you a good idea of just how large the volcano is and what it looked like after it exploded in the mid-80's. There is still some activity going on at the volcano, and quite often it belches out some smoke. The rim of the volcano is beginning to reform after the last eruption which caused a lot of havoc and quite a number of deaths in both Oregon and Washington. It truly is a beautiful site, but as with many things in nature beauty can be deceiving. You can get much closer than I did when I took this picture, but time was running short and I didn't have time to ride into Washington State and get closer to the volcano. I remember well when it erupted in the 80's, and my brother was living in Newport at the time a good 100 or more miles away and ash still managed to find it's way to the area he was living in - he was nice enough to bring me a bottle of ash from the eruption, but I'll never forget those that were lost during this tragic incident. It's well worth your drive from this area and can be reached in about 8 hours driving on Interstate 5 heading north.
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